The President

The modern presidents of the United States of America have almost all been rich white protestants who have attended ivy league schools. This background isn't a limitation but is essentially a stencil for presidential canidates.

Presidents have many powers and roles some of the roles the president plays are:

Commander in Chief
- Head of the military
- Can send troops into foreign countrys for sixty days without approval from congress
Chief of State
- Public representative
- Appearances on talk shows are examples of this role
Chief Diplomat
- Foreign Policy maker
- uses executive agreements and treaties to negotiate with other countries
Chief Legislator
- Uses presidential powers such as veto's to influence policy making
- The president can also issue executive orders to circumvent congress and the lengthy policy making process
- Often hard for president to fufill this role with a congress that is oppisite of his party affiliation
Chief Administrator
- To fufill this responsibility the president handles the 15 executive departments
- This often consists of briefings and meetiings with various departments and agencies
Chief Jurist
- Nominates federal Judges to the federal court system

The election process of the president in America is very long and drawn out compared to those in european countries. it begins with primaries where multiple canidates compete for the canidacy of the president for their party. After all the states have voted there is two national conventions. One Democratic and one Republican. These conventions choose canidates for the election. then the general national election process takes place. America uses the electoral college system. In this system it is possible to win the general election off of electoral votes instead of popular votes. this system gives states electoral votes based off of the amount of congress people serving from their state. If you win a states popular vote you win all of their electoral votes; it is a winner takes all system. However after in office the president can only serve two terms at four years each; this is because the twenty second ammendment. The video to the right can explain the system in greater detail.

Election Process

Back To Executive

Presidential Succession

In the unfortunate and unlikley event that a president would be killed the successsion order goes as is in the image to the right. However for all practical purposes you should probably just know the first four which are

President
Vice President
Speaker of the House
President Pro Tempore