Chapter 12 Review The Presidency

1. What is the Twenty-fifth Amendment?

The amendment that prevents the decapitation of our government. It sets who is in line should something happen if the president dies. Also provides for what to do if we have another W. Wilson situation.

2. How would the Vice President go about having the President removed if a disability made it necessary?

It would take a majority of the cabinet to vote to have the president removed, but the president could excuse himself if something was to happen, by submitting a letter to Congress

3. What was a main point of the Twenty-second Amendment?

It formally limited the president to two terms (ten years, really).

4. How is the president most likely to get support they initiated through Congress?

When they have a lot of support from the American public. It also helps when they mention their policy initiatives in the State of the Union address, or better yet, preside over a healthy economy.

5. What is the unit rule?

The Electoral College – when the majority of a state’s voters vote for a presidential candidate, all the electors of that state vote for that candidate

6. What is the White House Office?

The people who work most closely in the West Wing, contains the Press Secretary, the Director of Communications and their assistants, who advise the president (positions not confirmed by the full Senate)

7. What are the options, when the President vetoes a bill?

Congress can simply forget about the bill, hey they tried and failed, or they can override the veto with a two-thirds vote of BOTH houses

8. What best describes the heads of the fifteen cabinet departments?

Usually, they’re people well qualified for the position, but have little real political power. Their main job is to run their department well and advise the president regarding their department (usually, sans political ramifications of their department)

9. What is executive power?

It’s the power of the presidency (the executive branch) to enforce the laws that are passed by Congress (the legislative branch)

10. Is there an advantage in getting laws passed if the President’s party also controls Congress?

It matters to some extent, but think about the first two years of President Obama and Clinton’s terms – they had a hard time getting their proposals through Congress – so really, gridlock occurs regardless of who controls which branch of government – it’s part of our representative government.

11. What is the Executive Office of the President?

Presidential appointees who are responsible for coordinating the activities of the President and executive branch.

12. Which 2 powers of the President is unchallenged by Legislative or Judicial branch?

What color to pain the oval office, and of course, the power to grant pardons

13. What can become the biggest challenge to a President, in getting things done?

Scandal, Really, any continued appearance of lying or attempts to deceive the American People

14. What was the President’s original area of responsibility, as envisioned by the Framers?

Foreign policy (Chief Diplomat), but his role in foreign policy has increased because the need to coordinate national foreign (and economic) policy is a task to which the office of the President is best suited.

15. The primary was introduced after the time of Andrew Jackson, when did it become more in use?

Really, during the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the winner of the majority of the state primaries can expect to get the nomination at the National Convention

16. After the President takes the office, what happens regarding his popularity?

At first, he gets the honeymoon period, which is a few months of leniency by the press and Congress, where he is most likely to get things done, but then as time goes on, he can expect to see his popularity decline, as promises go unfulfilled, they run out of ideas, or the dreded scandal

17. What is the OMB?

The Office of Management and Budget, they work for the President and is responsible for reviewing the budget proposals for the different executive departments and assembling the final budget

18. What is executive privilege?

Different than executive power, it’s the idea that the president needs to get advise, and those giving the advise, need to know that there is an element of anonymity about it – they need to know they can give the advise, and not be questioned by Congress about it.

19. Who tried to use executive privilege to block Congress from getting information from the White House?

Nixon, during the Watergate hearings, they tried to keep the White House tapes from being used against them (the conspiracy and 18 mins. of silence)

What is a pocket veto?

When there are fewer than 10 days left to a session of Congress, and they pass a bill. But the President doesn’t sign it, so it automatically fails to become law, without an actual veto stamp on it.

What would a direct election for President look like?

How on earth would we know??? We’re Americans and we do not directly elect our President. We use the primary caucus to select our candidate, a convention to nominate him, and the Electoral College to vote him in.

Campaigns start early and cost a lot of money. Why?

They write books and start early to gain momentum for the long primary fight, and of course, the cost of advertising on TV has gone up a lot, so they need the early start to raise a lot of dough

The End