When running for President of the United States and actually being elected as President for the United States, the President faces much hardship. All the campaign promises he has made to the public to ensure change and better living, he now has to hold his word to, or at least try his best. In addition, they need to go off their predecessor’s example and fix or even completely change what they have established. The Founding Fathers of the original thirteen colonies had a smaller role for the President, but it gradually grew. At first the President was limited to defending the country when prone to attacks, enforcing our laws and had to follow the constitution. However, as time progressed, he was granted more powers. The President was soon allowed to become the nation’s spokesman, lead us into the free word and take a lead on foreign policy. President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, as our 44th President in place of our 43rd President, George Bush. …show more content…
The President-elect brings into office with him, his administration to replace his predecessor’s cabinet. He goes through a series of candidates for roles such as Supreme Court Appointees and for those to assist him in the Executive branch as well, in order to ensure a smooth transition. During his election, Barack Obama has promised to create millions of jobs, develop a cure for cancer, and abolish nuclear weapons from the world. Although he was ambitious and did attempt without stopping to do so, his largest problem was combatting the Republican dominated House of Representatives. President Obama has followed by only receding when the danger pulls backs. This meaning that, only when things start to improve will he then stop being overzealous with his
The President is a special position with special powers especially the US president. My initial wonder has always been why would someone run for the president of a country and what actually made someone like President Obama run for the presidency of the US. Even though none of this week’s reading focused on that. Nevertheless, there were interesting dimensions to the readings on the topic.
The president is constantly looking toward the state of nation’s defense. All major decisions and strategies are his to make alone. Likewise, the president is the nation's number 1 political boss. People look to the president as the leader for public opinion. Even though the president seems like he couldn’t take on many other roles, he is also the Chief of State, he is the leader of the rituals of the American Democracy.
There is a large amount of enthusiasm surrounding the election of a new commander in chief in the first couple months. During the first couple years, that same enthusiasm and momentum is alive. In their third and fourth year, all of the president’s supporters are eager to re-elect him. However, in their fifth and sixth years, presidencies tend to run out of gas, new ideas, and their previous agenda has dried up. As a result, not only do presidents have to come up with a new agenda, the nation also commences to steadily and progressively grow fatigued, resulting in bad six-year itches and usually unsuccessful efforts to transfer possession of the White House to the vice president or some other member of the
The office of president today is very different from that envisaged by the framers of the constitution in 1787- the circumstances that have given rise to modern presidential power could not have been foreseen. However some argue that the office of president is one of inherent weakness rather than strength, and that the powers of the president were no guarantee that power could actually be exercised. In his view, presidential leadership was possible only when there were extraordinary crisis conditions such as depression or war. F.D. Roosevelt is often given as an example of such a president.
Our nation began in 1776 with the first elected president as George Washington. Since then we have had forty-two other leaders take on the role of being the president of the United States of America. Every four years we elect a new president and each president that is elected can run again and serve up to two terms as a total of eight years. The President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military and leading the nation with the largest economy. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside
"No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country"(Wilson). This quote given by President Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth president of the United States, portrays one of many duties the president is required to fulfill. How much a president matters depends on many factors, not the least of which is the president’s own view of the office and leadership ability. The Constitution calls for power to be shared among the three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial – and throughout American history Congress and the president have contended for dominance. Woodrow Wilson made significant decisions that greatly influenced
When the framers of the Constitution constructed the executive branch of government, they envisioned a president with certain limited powers. Having delegated to the president a specific type of authority, the framers would probably be surprised to see that they had actually created a rather dynamic officer. The presidency is continually changing over time. That is, the power of the president has been both increased and decreased a various stages in history. Opportunites for change did not generally result from the characteristics of individual presidents, but rather came as a result of specific historic occurrences that impacted the nation as a whole. For example, the Civil War created a forum that
While some would argue that the framers of the Constitution did enough to limit the power of the President because of actions carried out by the leaders of the past, the more valid perspective is that these actions were made based on personal goals, and that judgements on these actions are justified based on opinions—not facts. From this, it can be concluded that the authors of The Constitution of the United States have placed enough rules, regulations, and checks to successfully limit the power of the President. In this modern American world, social and governmental society is continuously developing and evolving over time; important decisions that drive this evolution are made everyday by people of great importance. One of these important
The modern presidency has in a sense become a double-edged sword in that presidents have become beneficiaries of anything positive that can be attributed to government, but also can be blamed for anything bad occurring in society. Quite simply, the modern president has become the center of our political system (The Modern Presidency, 2004). The men who have dealt with this double-edged sword known as the modern presidency have often walked a very fine line between effectiveness and ineffectiveness, but all have attempted to use their power in one way or another.
Any American president should not just stay languid to the job s/he is assigned to do. The American system may be fine but it is not perfect in any way. So the key role of the President is to try and fix this. Talking about which, I would like to point out some of the key sectors like education, health, energy and safety where the country needs a lot of
When we think of the presidency today, it is hard to understand how much it has change since its inception. Many of the founding fathers disagreed on the role that the executive branch should play, largely because they feared a leader with too much power. It is safe to say that if not for the persona of one man the presidency would not exist in the way that it does today but there are many other who have transformed the role of a branch that had merely a skeleton of an outline of what the office’s role should be. In the beginning it was like playing a game where we were making the rules up as we went; today it is an institution that the Founders would not recognize. To begin such a study, it is only just that we start with the man who
The common definition of a president is an officer who is elected or appointed to preside over an organized body of persons as the Chief Executive of the United States. When given this title , Americans expect vast achievements from that individual. Which is judged by their success in the present and the future during their 4 year term. Understandably, some of these expectations include; upholding the Constitution and protecting the natural rights and liberties of the American people . Along with taking speedy actions on problems facing the nation, while having a compelling vision for this country.
As the President has so many roles to play and luckily divides much of it up amongst his staff. Out of the roles he’s mainly responsible for, of the main three, I would choose his role as the Commander-in-Chief to the most important role. The President’s Job. (n.d.). “The Constitutional power as "Commander in Chief" has evolved into the very important modern role of "crisis manager.”” Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/gov/7d.asp. And with the President in full control of the full United States Military Force, and not just the regular military. Also including the reserve components and the National Guards of each state, if they were to be activated. One must consider just the sheer amount of responsibility that would come from such amounts of power.
Presidents must be able to find solutions to a variety of problems the U.S. may face. For example, a president must be decisive when proposing a request for a law to be added as part of the “elastic clause” constitution. It is also at the president’s discretion to making peace treaties, mobilize armed forces, veto laws that are considered unnecessary, and appoint Supreme Court judges if need be. Due to the principle of checks and balances, the president, as the executive branch of government, does not have ultimate power, but several crucial decisions are in his hands. We the people trust in the president to use his foundation of strong values, intuition, and knowledge to do what’s best for the country with proper judgment.
Although it is often said that the President of the United States holds the most powerful office in the world, this does not mean that he is able to decide very much for himself. The American Constitution, which was adapted in 1789, clearly states the Separation of Powers. Thus, the president makes up only one third of the government, namely the executive branch. He is also controlled by a complex system of checks and balances, which makes sure that he (or any of the other branches, for that matter) does not become too powerful. We will now have a look at the different problems which may be facing a recently elected president, and then discuss to what extent his powers are important.