Dye, Gibson, Robison Politics in America, 8 th Edition Chapter 11 The President: White House Politics
According to Professor Dye (p. 373), Americans instinctually look to their president for Greatness
This was true from the beginning as Washington became the only Person to be unanimously elected POTUS; the only man everyone in the country knew This is the dude we know the one on the $
We ve had some great Presidents as you can see from the What do you think? handout From your perspective who are a few great Presidents and why? By what criteria do we even rate a great, an average, or a terrible POTUS?
Here s a few great resources to see how historians rate the presidents and why C-SPAN 2009 Presidential Leadership Survey Historians Presidential Leadership Survey
Presidential Power: What Powers do they have? People these days expect a lot of the POTUS (IMO, too much) to be the person who propounds a vision for creating peace and prosperity. Problem: they don t really have power to guarantee these things and it sets them up for failure Managing Crises Proving policy leadership Managing the economy Managing the government Foreign Policy leader The President performs important ceremonial functions, in both good times and times of crisis
Per the U.S. Constitution, to be POTUS a person needs to: (1) be at least 35 (2) be a natural born citizen (3) be a citizen for at least 14 years *Youngest POTUS was TR; 2 nd Youngest was JFK
Constitutional Powers of the President
Presidential Succession What are the ways that a president can leave the office? Impeachment, reelection defeat, retirement, death Twenty-second Amendment Twenty-fifth Amendment
Executive Privilege In an attempt to hide his role in the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon unsuccessfully tried to invoke executive privilege to prevent the release of tapes of his meetings to Congress he lost the battle over the tapes and ultimately the Presidency here he is leaving DC with his bizarre victory salute
Political Resources of the President As Dye says (p. 383), the real resources of presidential power are not found in the Constitution. The president s power is the power to persuade I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them that s all the powers of the president amount to -Harry Truman
Political Resources of the President 1) Reputation for Power (image is everything) 2) Presidential Popularity (from honeymoon the trend is down, though it rises during crises ) 3) Access to Media (since they dominate the news, the US population has constant access to the POTUS about advancing their programs and selling the story of the Presidency every day) 4) Personality (Dye points out that a POTUS with a warm, humorous, engaging personality has an advantage over those who don t Nixon, Carter, Bush Sr v. Reagan, Clinton, Obama?)
George Bush and the War on Terrorism Bush Doctrine A policy adopted by the Bush administration in 2001 that asserted America s right to attack any nation that has weapons of mass destruction that might be used against U.S. interests at home or abroad Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
George W. Bush s Approval Ratings Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
Presidential Popularity Over Time
Presidential Approval Over Time
Congressional Approval Over Time
Sex, Lies, and Impeachment Bill Clinton was the second president in the nation s history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives Does engaging in extramarital sex and lying about it meet the Constitution s standard for impeachment?
The Chief Executive Appoints leaders of important agencies Issues executive orders Proclamations National security directives Presidential decision directives Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
Chief Legislator and Lobbyist: Presidential Success Scores in Congress
Presidential Success Scores
Chief Legislator and Lobbyist: Veto Power
Global Leader Foreign policy tools: Appointing ambassadors Receiving ambassadors Diplomatic Recognition Treaties Executive Agreements Fast-track trade authority Meeting with foreign leaders to forge ties and make formal alliances
Commander-in- Chief President is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but Congress is charged with declaring wars Presidential prerogative versus War Powers Act
Commander-in-Chief:The War Power In 1973, Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution in order to limit the ability of the president to commit the armed forces of the United States
The Vice President Benjamin Franklin: vice president should be addressed as, your Superfluous Excellency John Nance Garner: The vice-presidency isn t worth a warm bucket of piss Beginning in the 1950s, the role of vice president became more important (Dye)