Presidential Role



|Presidential Role |Description |Obama Example |

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|1) Chief of |Ceremonial head of U.S. government. Hosts foreign |In December 2018, President Trump and his wife |

|State |leaders and represents the American people at |attended the funeral of former president George H.W.|

| |important ceremonies. |Bush. |

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|2) Chief | |During his first months in office, President Trump |

|Executive |Enforces the laws and carries out the policies |ordered the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) |

| |passed by Congress. |Agency to round up and deport more undocumented |

| | |immigrants. |

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|3) Chief |Head of all government agencies and employees. |In late 2018, President Trump appointed and the |

|Administrator |Appoints people to help run the government. |Senate approved Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacant |

| | |spot on the Supreme Court left when Tony Kennedy |

| | |chose to retire after 30+ years. |

| | | |

|4) Chief | |In February 2019, President Trump traveled to |

|Diplomat |Main architect of American foreign policy. |Vietnam to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un|

| | |to try to get him to dismantle his nuclear weapons |

| | |program. |

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|5) Commander- | |During his first year in office, President Trump |

|in-Chief |In charge of the armed forces. |announced our troops will stay in Iraq and Syria |

| | |indefinitely to combat ISIS. |

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|6) Chief | |In December 2017, President Trump signed a law |

|Legislator |Works with Congress to create laws. |passed by Congress to cut taxes. |

|Qualifications of the Presidency |

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|1) Age – 35 years old when taking office. |

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|2) Citizenship – “Natural born” citizen of the United States. |

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|3) Residency – Must live in U.S. for at least 14 years of their life. |

|President’s Term |

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|1) No-third-term tradition – Although it was not required by the Constitution, George Washington set an important precedent when he chose to step down after|

|serving two terms. Over the next century and a half, although a couple (like Grant and Cleveland) tried, no president successfully got elected to a third |

|term. |

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|2) FDR – After being elected in 1932 and re-elected in 1936, he broke the no-third-term tradition when he was elected to a third term in 1940 and a fourth |

|term in 1944. He died in 1945 only a few months into his fourth term, leaving many people questioning whether or not we really want a popular person serving|

|essentially as “president-for-life” only to die while in office. |

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|3) 22nd Amendment (1951) – No person may be elected president more than twice. Furthermore, if a president for some reason leaves office in the middle of a|

|term, the person who replaces him/her may only serve as president for a maximum of 10 years. |

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|Presidential Succession |

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|1) 25th Amendment (1967) – |

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|What happens if the presidency becomes vacant in the middle of a term? |

|The original Constitution only said if the president left office in the middle of a term, the powers of the presidency would “devolve” to the VP. It did not|

|clearly state the VP in this case would become president and would therefore no longer be the VP. Because this language was ambiguous, Congress, after the |

|assassination of JFK, passed the 25th Amendment which clearly states if the president leaves office in the middle of a term, the VP becomes president. |

|Example: Ford became President in 1974 when Nixon resigned. |

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|What happens if the vice-presidency becomes vacant in the middle of a term? |

|The VP spot can become vacant in the middle of a term if the VP dies, resigns, gets impeached and removed or if he/she replaces a president who leaves office|

|early. The Framers made no provision in the original Const. for replacing VP who leaves office early. Historically whenever the VP spot became vacant in |

|the middle of a term, it was just left vacant until the next election. The 25th Amendment provides for when the VP spot becomes vacant midterm, the |

|president appoints a new VP. This appointment must then be approved by a simple-majority vote in BOTH houses of Congress. Example: When Nixon resigned and|

|Ford became president, he quickly appointed Nelson Rockefeller to replace him as VP. |

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|What happens if the president becomes incapacitated? |

|If for whatever reason the president becomes incapacitated in the middle of a term and cannot carry out his/her duties, the 25th Amendment says the VP serves|

|as “acting president” holding all of the powers of the presidency until the president is healthy enough to resume his/her job. In this case, the VP does NOT|

|become president and is still officially the VP (one person temporarily doing the two top jobs). Example: In 2002 when George W. Bush had to be put under |

|anesthesia to undergo a colonoscopy, his VP Dick Cheney became “acting president” for two and a half hours. |

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|2) Presidential Succession Act of 1947 – |

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|a) Purpose – Provides a line of succession to the presidency in case a number of the top leaders of our government are killed at the same time. During the |

|Cold War this was thought to be a very realistic concern. If the Soviet Union were to launch some kind of a devastating attack on our country (like a |

|nuclear assault) they could kill many leaders simultaneously. |

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|b) Who is on the list? – There are currently 18 people on the list: |

|1) Vice-president; |

|2) Speaker of the House; |

|3) President pro tempore of the Senate; |

|4)-18) the 15 members of the Cabinet in the order their positions were created. |

Warm-up Question: What is the purpose of presidential primary elections?

The word “primary” of course means “first.” Before we can have a presidential election in November, we first have to narrow down the candidates from each party so only one of each will show up on the ballot. The primary elections take place in the winter and spring of the election year. Over the course of several months, in a couple of states each week, voters go to the polls and vote for the candidate from their own party they like the best. This process traditionally begins in February with voting taking place in Iowa and New Hampshire, it then continues for several months, and ends with voters in the final states having their say in June. During these months, Republican candidates are running against other Republicans and Democratic candidates are running against other Democrats. By the end of the primary season, a single winner emerges from each party and the final stretch of the presidential campaign begins with one Republican going head-to-head with one Democrat for the position of leader of the free world.

Of course in 2016, the candidates Donald Trump had to beat out on the Republican side included people like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio – in all there were 17 Republicans who wanted to become the official nominee of the party – and Trump beat all the others. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s main competition came from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but there were three other candidates in the running as well. As a result of the primaries, by June it was down to Trump and Hillary as the official candidates for their parties. Without this primary process, on the November ballot there would have been a total of 22 candidates between the two major parties. Since a candidate has to win a simple majority of the Electoral College votes to become president, having that many candidates on the ballot might have split the vote in so many directions it would have been impossible for any one of them to win a majority.

One way to think of the primary elections is they are similar to the baseball playoffs. Before we can have a World Series between the top two teams, these teams have to beat all of the other competitors in their respective leagues. National League teams playoff against each other for the right to represent the NL while at the same time, American League teams playoff against each other for the right to represent the AL. When it finally gets down to where there is just one left from each league, we have a World Series (which is similar to the general election campaign in November).

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