Inside the U.S. Executive Branch: Roles, Quotes, & Elections Overview

1. The Executive Branch

2. The President –Barack Obama • One of the ___ Branches of Government first created by thinker Baron _____________. • Qualifications: • Natural Born Citizen, 35, and 14 year resident. • Experience? Money? Beliefs? Character? • Salary = $400,000/yr plus benefits. • Two Terms (22nd Amendment)

3. Some Quotes About the Office • “If you are as happy on entering the W.H. as I on Leaving it, you are a very happy man indeed.” • James Buchanan to Lincoln • “My god! What is there in this place that a man should ever want to get into it?” • James Garfield • “No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend upon obtaining it” • John Adams • “My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those a culprit who is going to the place of his execution” • George Washington • “The four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency” • John Q. Adams • “As to the Presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it” • Martin Van Buren

4. The Vice President – Joe Biden • Same requirements as the President. • Constitutional duties: • Presides over Senate. Votes in a tie. • Under 25th Amendment helps determine when the president is “Disabled” • Supports President & May be given additional responsibilities today.

5. Some Quotes About the Office • “The vice presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.” • John Garner (VP to FDR) • I spent several years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, in the dark, fed with scraps. Do you think I want to do that all over again as vice president of the United States? • John McCain • “There were once two brothers. One went off to war, the other became vice president. Neither was ever heard from again.” • In reference to Tom Marshall Truman’s VP • "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.“ • John Adams • "Look at all the vice presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow's fifth teat." • Harry Truman

6. The Cabinet • Dept. of War, Treasury, State, and Attorney Generals office created during Washington's first term. • “Cabinet” now includes 15 “secretaries” that head each Dept. • Appointed by President and approved by the Senate they advise President and are the administrators of large gov’t bureaucracies. http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html

7. The Executive Office • Individuals and Agencies that directly support the President. • Created in 1939 courtesy of FDR. • Examples: Nat’l Security Council, Office of Management and Budget, Nat’l Economic Council • Has grown over time as the government grows.

8. The Election Process • Popular Vote? • Direct Vote? • Electoral Vote? • Americans over 18 years old who are registered and have not had their right eliminated due to mental illness or criminal activities can vote for President. But what else is involved in the process?

9. The Electoral College • Originally: No popular vote. Electors were appointed in each state and would vote for two people. • Most votes became President, Second most; Vice President. (12th a.) • In the event of a tie the House would vote. • 1820’s saw the first popular votes for President.

10. The Electoral College • People cast vote for President • Actually voting for states electors • Electors Vote: need 270 out of 538 to win. • States are winner take all. • Electors not required to vote according to popular vote.

11. Election of 2000 • http://www.presidentelect.org/e2000.html

12. Election 0f 1824 • http://presidentelect.org/e1824.html

13. Should We Change the System? • http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/electoralcoll.htm