Transcript Chapter 13: The Presidency

Chapter 13: The Presidency
By,
Bryce Heth
Alli Peters
Will Gilmore
Jaryd Hiser
7th hour
3/28/06
The Presidents Roles
• The President is chief of state, chief
executive, chief administrator, chief
diplomat, commander in chief, chief
legislator, party chief, and chief citizen.
• The President both reigns and rules at
the same time.
• He has to play all of his roles
simultaneously.
Formal Qualifications
• The first qualification for the
presidency is that the candidate is “a
natural born citizen.”
• The second qualification for the
presidency is that the candidate is at
least 35 years of age.
• The last qualification for the presidency
is that the candidate has lived in the
United States for at least 14 years.
Informal Qualifications
• The informal qualifications of the
presidency are things such as race and
gender. Obviously you have an
advantage if you’re a white male.
• Other informal qualifications are
wealth, religion, background, marital
status, and military service.
The Presidents Term and Pay
• The president can be elected to a four
year term. After that they can be reelected to another four year term. The
max length for a president to serve is
ten years long.
• Up until 1951 president could serve as
many terms as they wanted.
• The president makes roughly 400,000
dollars a year. They provide them with
a 50,000 dollar expense allowance.
Presidential Succession
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Vice President
2. Speaker of the House
3. President pro tempore of the Senate
4. Secretary of State
5. Secretary of Treasury
6. Secretary of Defense
7. Attorney General
8. Secretary of the Interior
9. Secretary of Agriculture
10. Secretary of Commerce
11. Secretary of Labor
12. Secretary of Health and Human Services
13. Secretary of Housing and Urban development
14. Secretary of Transportation
15. Secretary of Energy
16. Secretary of Education
17. Secretary of Veterans Affairs
18. Secretary of Homeland Security
Presidential Succession
• The Presidential Succession act of 1947
made the previous list in affect.
• There has been no time in history
where anyone other then the Vice
President has succesed the President.
Presidential Disability
• Section 3 and 4 of the 25th amendment
fill the gap by stating two ways the
vice president can become the acting
President. The two ways are 1. The
President informs Congress in writing
that he is incapable of his powers. 2.
The Vice President and majority of the
cabinet inform Congress in writing
inform congress that the President is
so incapacitated.
Importance of the Vice President
• It assigns the position two duties: (1)
to preside over the Senate and (2) to
help decide the question of presidential
disability.
• People that served as Vice President
feel that it is a “laid back job.”
• Presidents choose Vice President who
would help them win by balancing the
ticket.
Vice Presidential Vacancy
• The vice presidency has been vacant
18 times thus far: nine times by
succession to the presidency twice by
resignation, and seven times by death.
• The 25th Amendment dealt with this
matter that went into affect in 1973.
The Rise of Parties
• Electoral college-a group of people
chosen from each state to formally
select the President and Vice President.
• Flaws arose when parties began to
form and in 1800 when there was a tie
for Presidency the 12th Amendment
was produced which separates the
election of the President and Vice
President.
The Role of Conventions
• The Constitution says nothing about
presidential nominations, the convention
system has been built entirely by the two
major parties.
• Once a place is chosen the committee issues
its “call” and informs each State how many
delegates it may send.
• The # of delegates is determined by the
number of electoral votes that State
receives.
Presidential Primaries
• A Presidential Primary is an election in
which a party’s voters 1)choose some
or all of a State party organization’s
delegates to their party’s extent and/or
2)express a preference among various
contenders for their party’s presidential
nomination.
• First appeared in the early 1900’s.
• These primaries vary greatly from
state to state.
Presidential Primaries (cont.)
• Some were winner-take-all: when the
candidate who won the preference vote
automatically wins the support of all
delegates.
• The Democrats have a proportional
representation rule which is any candidate
that wins at least 15 percent of the votes get
the corresponding share of the primary vote.
• Critics believe each major party should hold
one primary instead of numerous smaller
ones.
The National Convention
• Defined as the meetings at which the
delegates vote to pick their presidential
and vice-presidential candidates.
• Three major goals 1)naming the
candidates 2)bring the various
functions and leading personalities
together 3)adopting the party’s
platform (basic principles, stands on
certain matters, and objectives for the
campaign and beyond)
The Four Days
• The first day is spent organizing and
speeches, including the keynote address
• The second day the presentation and
adoption of committee reports are done
• The third day the nomination of the party’s
candidate for presidency is chosen
• The final day the nomination of vice
presidency is chosen
Who is Nominated
• People with substantial and well-known
political experience
• Governors have the best chance
• Protestant
• Come from larger states
• Pleasant and healthy appearance
• good speaking abilities
• male
The Electoral College
• Electors chosen are expected to
automatically vote for their party’s
candidate.
• Electors are chosen by popular vote in
each State on the Tuesday after the
first Monday in November.
• Maine and Nebraska are chosen on a
winner-take-all basis.
• Majority is needed to win, 270 of 538.
Flaws in the Electoral College
• 1)The winner of the popular vote is not
guaranteed presidency.
• 2)Electors are not required to vote in
accord with the popular vote.
• 3)Any election might have to be
decided in the House of Reps.
Proposed Reforms
• The district plan is an idea in which the
electors would be chosen in each state the
same way as members of Congress would
be.
• The proportional plan is when each
presidential candidate would receive the
same share of a State’s electoral vote as he
or she received in the State’s popular vote.
• Direct popular test would be ridding of the
entire electoral college system, this is the
most widespread idea.
The National Bonus Plan
• This plan at first seemed very complex
and “off the wall”
• It would keep much of the electoral
college system intact, but it would also
weigh in the winner of the popular
vote.
• 102 electoral votes would be given
automatically to the winner of the
popular vote.
Support of the Electoral College
• 1) it is a well known process and it is
impossible to know if any of these
other plans will have defects.
• 2) it usually identifies a winner quickly
and certainly (for the exception of the
2000 election)
• 3) only 2 elections have ever had to go
to the House of Reps.
Bibliography
Magruder’s American Government
Prentice Hall – William A. McClenaghan