Once the new president has secured the election, he must soon decide how he wants to deliver on what was promised during the election campaign. The CEO needs to set priorities, choose what they want to highlight, and formulate strategies to get the job done. He or she works in the shadow of a measure of presidential effectiveness known as the first hundred days in power, a concept that became popular during Franklin Roosevelt`s first term in the 1930s. While a hundred days may be too short for a president to boast of real achievements, most presidents recognize that they must tackle their most important initiatives in the first two years of their term. This is the time when the president is most powerful and gets the benefit of the doubt from the public and the media (aptly called a honeymoon), especially when he or she moves into the White House with a politically oriented Congress, as Barack Obama did. However, recent history suggests that even one-party control of Congress and the presidency does not guarantee effective policy-making. This difficulty is due to both divisions within the ruling party and the obstructionist tactics cleverly practiced by the minority party in Congress. Democratic President Jimmy Carter`s struggles with a Congress controlled by Democratic majorities are a good example. Since its invention at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the office of president has gradually become more powerful, giving the president more leadership options at home and abroad. The role of the chief executive has evolved as presidents have faced domestic and foreign policy challenges in times of war and peace, and with the general rise of power in the federal government. Over time, presidents have made greater use of their unilateral powers, including decrees. Constitutionally, presidents may issue decrees (1) to exercise the power enumerated as Commander-in-Chief; 2) implement laws with powers expressly delegated by congress; and (3) continue the internal activities of the executive. Decrees, which establish binding rules for states and/or the people, are constitutionally problematic.
Only Congress has the power to legislate under the constitutionally assigned separation of powers. The role of the president is to implement the laws. Now, presidents offer their own interpretation of the legislation by signing declarations (which will be discussed later in this chapter) addressed to the bureaucratic unit in charge of implementation. For foreign policy, Congress allowed the widespread use of executive agreements to formalize international relations as long as important issues still passed through the Senate in the form of treaties. [12] Delegates also pointed out who had the right to vote and how Congress could impeach the president. Article II of the Constitution outlines the requirements – the chief executive must be at least thirty-five years of age and be a “naturally born” citizen of the United States (or a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution) who has resided in the United States for at least fourteen years. [6] While Article II also states that the term is four years and does not explicitly limit the number of times a person can be elected president after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times (from 1932 to 1944), the new twenty-second amendment limited the presidency to two four-year terms. Debate and discussion continued throughout the summer. The delegates eventually agreed on a single executive, but could not decide how to choose that person. James Wilson of Pennsylvania first proposed the direct election of the president. When delegates refused, he suggested that elected voters across the country choose the executive.
Over time, Wilson`s idea gained traction among delegate delegates who were uncomfortable with the idea of a general election and the potential for intrigue and corruption. The idea of a shorter period of service in conjunction with re-election also found support. The authors struggled to find the right balance between handing over the power needed to the president to do the job and paving the way for a president to abuse power and behave like a monarch on the other side. The most visible, though arguably least powerful, member of a president`s cabinet is the vice president. For most of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the vast majority of vice presidents took very few steps in power unless fate intervened. Few presidents consulted their competitors. In fact, until the twentieth century, many presidents had little to do with the appointment of their vice-president at the appointment convention. The office was considered a form of political exile, which motivated Republicans to appoint Theodore Roosevelt as William McKinley`s vice president in 1900. The strategy was to sideline the ambitious politician while leveraging his popularity. However, this plan backfired when McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became president. Federal law requires the executive branch to notify Congress when such an agreement occurs. Executive agreements are not explicitly discussed in the Constitution, but they have nevertheless been considered valid international covenants under Supreme Court jurisprudence and a matter of historical practice.
The President also exercises the power of pardon without conditions. Once used sparingly — aside from Andrew Johnson`s radical graces to the former Confederates during the Reconstruction period — the power of forgiveness has become more visible in recent decades. President Harry S. Truman granted more than two thousand pardons and conversions, more than any other president after World War II. [14] President Gerald Ford has an unenviable reputation as the only president to pardon another president (his predecessor Richard Nixon, who resigned after the Watergate scandal). Although he was not as generous as Truman, President Jimmy Carter also granted a large number of pardons, including several for conscientious objection during the Vietnam War. President Reagan was reluctant to use grace, as was President George H. W. Bush.
President Clinton pardoned few people for much of his presidency, but granted several controversial pardons at the last minute. .