1. The Presidential Establishment
7.4
The Presidential Establishment
The Vice President
The Cabinet
The First Lady
The Executive Office of the President (EOP)
The White House Staff
As the responsibilities of the president have grown, so has the executive branch of government. FDR established the Executive Office of the President to help him govern. Perhaps the most important policy advisers are those closest to the president: the vice president, the White House staff, some key members of the Executive Office of the President, and the first lady. We will learn why in this section on the president's support personnel.

2. The Vice President 7.4 Balancing the ticket
Increasing role in modern presidency
Vice presidents are often chosen to balance the presidential ticket in some way. A Northern or Eastern presidential candidate might choose a Southern or Western vice presidential candidate for example. Balance might also be sought on ideological, racial, ethnic, religious, or gender lines. Why do you think Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate?
Vice presidents have performed mainly ceremonial duties until modern times, when presidents have begun to give them policy advisory and advocacy roles. Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, was considered to have considerable influence over the president's foreign policy especially.

3. The Cabinet 7.4 Traditional, not mandated
Heads of federal agencies and executive departments
Agriculture
Commerce
Labor
Education
The president is not required by the Constitution to have a Cabinet, but all presidents since Washington have chosen a select group of advisers in major policy areas. The modern Cabinet consists of the heads of federal agencies and major executive departments, such as Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, and Education.
Not all department heads are Cabinet level; it is up to the president to grant them that status if he deems their constituency important enough.
Modern presidents are no longer likely to convene full Cabinet meetings, as this is impractical now that the Cabinet is so large and specialized. Instead, they meet individually with their Cabinet officials as needed.

4. The First Lady 7.4 Informal advisers Abigail Adams Edith Wilson
Eleanor Roosevelt
Michelle Obama
The first lady has no formal Constitutional role, but many first ladies have exerted influence on their husbands and performed duties well beyond that of hostess at the White House.
Abigail Adams exhorted her husband to consider women in making the nation's laws. Edith Wilson was the most powerful first lady thus far as she took over running the country when her husband was incapacitated by a stroke. Eleanor Roosevelt advocated publicly for policies and charitable causes that she supported. More recently, Michelle Obama has taken up the causes of healthy eating and exercise to combat childhood obesity.

5. What do first ladies do? 7.4 Alex Brandon/AP Images
First ladies often take on important policy initiatives and charitable causes. First Lady Michelle Obama, for example, has prioritized childhood health and fitness. She has been active in the "Let's Move!" campaign, even challenging late night television host Jimmy Fallon to a series of physical fitness tests in the White House. She is shown here helping students harvest the White House vegetable garden.
Alex Brandon/AP Images

6. The Executive Office of the President (EOP)
7.4
The Executive Office of the President (EOP)
National Security Council (NSC)
Council of Economic Advisers (CEA)
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Office of the Vice President
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Economic Recovery Advisory Board
"Czars"
We mentioned that the size of the federal bureaucracy greatly expanded under the New Deal programs created by FDR. In 1939, he established the EOP to provide him with staff to help oversee these new programs.
The units of the EOP change depending upon the president's needs, and they have grown to include:
•the NSC, which advises the president on matters of national security
•the CEA, which performs the same role on matter of economic policy
•the powerful OMB, which prepares the president's annual budget and advises on the budgetary implications of policy
•the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which advises on foreign trade matters
The vice president may in modern times supply the president with policy or other advice. President Obama added an Economic Recovery Advisory Board to deal with issues of the current recession.
Czars are independent advisers appointed by the president without Congressional approval to provide expertise in key policy areas.

7. The White House Staff 7.4 Personal assistants Senior aides
Chosen for loyalty
Chief of staff
Closest to the president are his personal White House staff members, who are not subject to Senate confirmation. They do not have any independent legal authority but are chosen for their loyalty to the president. The chief of staff is the most important of these positions. He or she acts as gatekeeper for the president, with influence over who he sees and what he reads.

8. 7.4 The Executive Office of the President includes
National Security Council
Office of Management and Budget
Council of Economic Advisors
All of the above
We have reviewed the units on which the president relies. Can you name the agencies that are part of the EOP? 8

9. 7.4 The Executive Office of the President includes
National Security Council
Office of Management and Budget
Council of Economic Advisors
All of the above
In addition to these units, the EOP includes the Office of the U.S Trade Representative and the Office of the Vice President. 9

10. Presidential Leadership and the Importance of Public Opinion
7.5
Presidential Leadership and the Importance of Public Opinion
Presidential Leadership and Personality
Going Public
President and Public Opinion
To gain support for his programs or proposed budget, the president uses a variety of skills, including personal leadership and direct appeals to the public. The president's leadership skills and personal style, which are affected by his ability to persuade, determine how he goes about winning support.
Since the 1970s, as we will elaborate in this section, the American public has been increasingly skeptical of presidential actions, and few presidents have enjoyed the extended periods of popularity needed to help win support for programs.

11. Presidential Leadership and Personality
7.5
Presidential Leadership and Personality
What makes a president great?
Leadership style
Powers of persuasion
Lincoln and FDR
Not all presidents have been able to harness the power at their disposal as president and become successful leaders. Circumstances certainly affect a president's opportunity to exercise leadership, such as the Civil War for President Lincoln and the Great Depression for FDR, but great presidents have had an intuitive ability to secure the backing of the public and Congress for their policies. It is a combination of circumstances and the right personality for the job that makes a president great.
Activity: Have students examine in depth the administration of a "failed" president such as James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, or Jimmy Carter.
Ask students to examine the presidential career of one of these presidents and report back to the class. What personal flaws seemed to handicap his administration? Did he have bad advisors? What major mistakes did he make? Could he have succeeded under different circumstances?
Then have a class discussion about what common features emerge across the various "failed" presidencies.

12. Going Public 7.5 Roosevelt's bully pulpit
Technology makes communication easier.
Radio TV
Internet
Twitter
Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to make a concerted effort to speak directly to the public to gain support for his policy agenda. Presidents since have taken advantage of advances in communications technology, from radio to TV to the Internet, to speak directly to citizens. Instead of holding traditional press conferences, presidents can appear on television talk shows and address the voters in prime time. These direct public appeals are known as "going public." Their purpose is clear: raise public support for a policy so that constituents put pressure on their elected officials to pass it.

13. 7.5 What role do presidential speeches serve?
Presidents carefully chose favorable audiences that enable them to mobilize support for key initiatives. Here, President Barack Obama speaks to students and faculty at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, encouraging them to lobby members of Congress against raising student loan interest rates.
The News & Observer, Chuck Liddy, Pool/AP Images

14. The President and Public Opinion
7.5
The President and Public Opinion
Approval ratings
How important are they?
What do they signify?
Decline as term progresses
Presidents pay close attention to their approval ratings. When they are high, they interpret them as giving them a mandate to implement their policy agenda and take the country in the direction indicated by their party's platform. When they are low, their influence with Congress wanes, making it more difficult for them to secure support for their policy proposals.
When presidential approval ratings are high, candidates from the president's party appreciate when he makes an appearance to support their campaign. Conversely, when approval is low, candidates of the president's party often attempt to distance themselves from him.
Approval ratings are usually at their highest when a president takes office, and decline throughout his term. A crisis, such as the 9/11 terrorist attack, may cause a brief spike in presidential approval ratings as the national bands together and puts partisan differences and other policy issues aside to deal with the crisis, but these upticks do not last long.

15. 7.5 FIGURE 7.1 How do approval ratings vary over time?
Examine the line graph, which shows the percentage of the American public approving of the president's performance from 1981 through When is the president's approval the highest? The lowest? How does the president's approval rating change over his term? Based on partisanship?
SOURCE:
Activity: Have students search the Web for public opinion on the presidency—both the office and the current inhabitant. They should discuss why Americans are dissatisfied with the office of the presidency and whomever seems to inhabit it. What proposals have been made to reform the presidency? Do they adequately reflect the problems and conflicts of the office? Can we "fix" the presidency so that the majority of Americans are satisfied? Discuss.

16. 7.5 As a president's time in office increases, his approval ratings:
also increase
generally go down
remain stable
decrease but rise as his term ends
Let's recap what happens to a president's approval ratings by answering this question. 16

17. 7.5 As a president's time in office increases, his approval ratings:
also increase
generally go down
remain stable
decrease but rise as his term ends
Presidents usually have the highest approval rating when they take office, but approval ratings decline the longer he stays in office. 17

18. Toward Reform: The President as Policy Maker
7.6
Toward Reform: The President as Policy Maker
President's Role in Proposing and Facilitating Legislation
Budgetary Process and Legislative Implementation
Policymaking Through Executive Order
Since FDR, the public has looked to the president to propose legislation to Congress. We will discover in this section how presidents make policy through proposing legislation and budgets, leading the regulatory process, and issuing executive orders and agreements.

19. The President's Role in Proposing and Facilitating Legislation
7.6
The President's Role in Proposing and Facilitating Legislation
Shepherd legislation through Congress
Propose legislation early in term
Role of party loyalty
Congress has a tendency to let bills without strong advocates languish in committee. One of the modern president's roles as legislative leader involves keeping favored bills on the national policy agenda and seeing that they are acted upon by Congress.
Presidents have mixed success persuading Congress to pass legislation that they propose or support. Legislation proposed early in a president's term tends to fare better than bills proposed nearer to election time. Why do you think this might be?
The president relies upon members of his own political party in Congress to sponsor his bills and secure support from other members of Congress. Party loyalty is key to presidential success in facilitating legislation.

20. The Budgetary Process and Legislative Implementation
7.6
The Budgetary Process and Legislative Implementation
Role of OMB
Prepare president's budget for Congress
Examine financial implications of policies
Scrutinize agency budgets
As the president began to play a bigger role in the legislative process, he needed a group of advisers to assess the budgetary implications of policies and to put together his annual budget proposal for Congress. The Office of Management and Budget, known as the OMB, works exclusively for the president reviewing and preparing budgets and examining the costs of policy proposals.

21. 7.6 How important is a balanced budget? J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images
President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore celebrate the first balanced budget in years, a feat not likely to be repeated soon.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images

22. Tools of Presidential Power
7.6
Tools of Presidential Power
Executive orders
Signing statements
Presidents have the power to sidestep Congress and make laws by issuing executive orders. These rules and regulations do have limitations. They can clarify or implement legislation passed by Congress but they can also sometimes make new policy. President Truman desegregated the military by executive order and President Johnson instituted affirmative action in the same way.
Although presidents lack a line-item veto, they can express disagreements with parts of legislation without vetoing the whole bill by issuing signing statements which record their objections or declare their intention not to implement parts of the legislation.

23. 7.6
7.6 A president can express disagreement with legislation by issuing a(n):
executive order
policy proposal
signing statement
pocket veto
Test your comprehension of the information we have covered in this section by answering this brief question. 23

24. 7.6
7.6 A president can express disagreement with legislation by issuing a(n):
executive order
policy proposal
signing statement
pocket veto
Signing statements are a way for presidents to make and influence public policy. 24

25. 7 Discussion Questions How do presidents use the "power to
persuade" to implement their agenda?
In what way is this power considered to be
their most important?

26. 7 Further Review Listen to the Chapter Study and Review the Flashcards
Study and Review the Practice Tests