- •American Emblems and Symbols
- •American Character
- •Geographical position
- •Early America
- •The First Europeans
- •First European settlements
- •English-American Relationship
- •The Wars
- •A New Colonial System
- •The War for Independence
- •The New Nation
- •Frontier
- •The Mexican War
- •The Civil War
- •Radical reconstruction
- •19Th-20th centuries
- •World War I
- •The New Deal
- •World War II
- •Pearl Harbor
- •Postwar America
- •Civil Rights Movement
- •Kennedy and the New Frontier
- •Cuban crisis
- •The Vietnam War
- •Watergate
- •Iran-Contra and Black Monday
- •The Gulf War
- •Panama and nafta
- •XXI century
- •The System of Government in the usa
- •American Constitution
- •Elections of the President
- •The President at Work
- •Vice-President
- •Parties and Elections
- •The parties
- •How Government Works
- •State Governments
- •Economy
- •Crime and punishment
- •Religion
- •Education
- •Mass Media
- •The Arts
- •American music
- •Appendix
- •American states New England
- •Midwest
- •Great Plains
- •Mountain
- •Southwest
- •Pacific
- •The anthem
- •The Enduring Mystery Of The Anasazi
- •Early Men, Indians And The Mound Builders
- •Tribes of Native Americans
- •Christopher Columbus
- •Jamestown
- •Massachusetts
- •Native Americans
- •The Iroquois Confederacy
- •Great Native Americans
- •Boston Tea Party Take your tea and shove it.
- •George Washington
- •“First in war, first in peace”, George Washington is the best known and the most honoured individual in America’s history.
- •John Adams
- •Thomas Jefferson
- •Early presidential elections and Congressional caucuses
- •Slavery and the War
- •John Brown (1800-1859) Harriet Tubman (c. 1820-1913)
- •John Brown’s Last Speech November 2, 1859
- •The Gettysburg Address
- •Abraham Lincoln
- •Robert Edward Lee
- •Ulysses s. Grant
- •William Tecumseh Sherman
- •Reconstruction
- •The First Sioux War
- •The Last Sioux War
- •The Nez Perce War
- •The Ghost Dance
- •Theodore Roosevelt
- •Prohibition
- •Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- •Eleanor Roosevelt
- •The Fair Deal
- •The Korean War
- •Civil Rights Movement
- •Martin Luther King, Jr.
- •I Have a Dream
- •The Ghetto Riots
- •The Cuban Missile Crisis
- •The Vietnam War
- •The Hostage Crisis
- •Manhattan Project Bomb Design
- •"Fat Man" - The Plutonium Bomb
- •Time Magazine:
- •Division of Powers
- •The Ivy League
- •Holidays
Elections of the President
President is the Head of the State, Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the USA.
When the people vote in November, the ballot paper includes the names of the Republican and Democratic candidates for President and Vice-President, each pair linked together.
Under the Constitution the voters in each state are voting for their state’s share of the Electoral College: each state is choosing between rival lists of electors who meet a month later in the state capital for the formal process of electing the President,
Each party chooses its candidates for President and Vice-President three or four months before the November election. Electoral College is elected by popular vote.
The President must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and for at least 14 years a resident of the US. “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the US, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the US” (Article II, sec. I). At noon on January, 20 (“Inauguration Day”) the President, the chief executive, is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. The Oath of the President (Oath of Office) says: “I do solemnly swear (affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the US, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the US”.
The US President is assisted in Administration by a Cabinet of 10-12 members. The Government positions held by member of the President’s Cabinet are: Secretary of State; Secretary of the Treasury; Secretary of the Defense; Attorney General; Postmaster General; Secretary of the Interior; Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Labor; Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Secretary of Transportation; Secretary of Energy; Secretary of Education; Secretary of Veteran Affairs; Secretary of Homeland Security. They are appointed by the President and serve during his term.
The Second Article and the 25th Amendment (ratified on February 10, 1967) speaks about presidential succession.
It is described in Article II, Section I of the Constitution “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Power and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolves on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what Office shall then act as President, and such Office shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected”.
The President at Work
The member of the Cabinet may not be in either House of Congress during the time they are in office. The Secretary of State is the most important member; he deals with foreign affairs.
A new President can choose his cabinet between the election in November and his accession to office in January.
Apart from the department and the President’s own office, there are dozens of partly independent agencies, run by boards which do not take exact instructions from the federal administrative hierarchy. In general these boards are appointed by the President, and subject to the Senate’s confirmation and their members hold office for fixed periods.
Some of these offices are in particular states or regions, and with them the President normally takes advice from local politicians of his own party, particularly senators – provided that they support his general policies.
When the president needs congressional support he arranges consultations with leading members of Congress. They often lead to compromise positions. A modern President can also put his case directly to the people on television.
President’s power is limited and constrained, but through his office he is alone the representative of the whole nation, and profits from the respect paid to that office.
In November of each leap year a President is elected to serve for exactly four years from the fixed day in the following January. The four-year rhythm has never been broken. Together with the President, a Vice-President is elected, and if the President dies the Vice-President becomes President for the unexpired part of the four-year – which could be 3 ¾ years or only three months.