Craig 1 Collin Craig Professor Nelson POLS 1100 The Presidency In the United States government there are

three main branches. There is the Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Legislative is all congress; this includes both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives has 435 representatives and they can do things like make taxation laws and decide to try government officials. The senate has 100 members and they get to decide if some of the decisions that the president makes go through. For example they get to decide on his treaties (Ben's Guide). The Executive is all about the presidency; its main component is the President of the United Sates. The president has a lot of duties that he is entitled to such as the Chief Diplomat and many others. Lastly is the Judicial it includes the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the highest court and it deals with all of the cases that have traveled through the court system. (Ben's Guide) All three branches work hand in hand much like in the way the president creates a treaty and then the Legislative gets to approve of it. Every major change to the country or to congress takes at least two or all of the branches to be completed. This way it keeps our government mostly stable to stop one person from getting to much power. But now we are going to focus on just the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch is all about the presidency as we stated above the president has multiple duties. Those duties are the Head of State, Chief Executive, Commander in Chief, Chief Diplomat and Chief Legislator. But lets start with how one becomes the president. There are 3 requirements to be the president. The candidate must be 35 years old, natural citizen and a resident for 14 years. The minimum age requirement is 35 years old but most candidates that run

Craig 2 for president are a lot older. The youngest president to be elected was John f. Kennedy in 1960, elected at the age of forty-three (Schmidt, 223). As far as a natural born citizen goes, the candidate needs to be born in the states or its territories but it is assumed that if the candidates parents are American but werent born here they would probably still be okay to run for president (Schmidt, 223). To expand more on the residency, the candidate must have been living in the United States for the last 14 years consecutively. Once the president is elected is when he gets all of the duties listed above. First is the Head of State, the head of state is basically the Master of Ceremonies for the United States. The role of the president as ceremonial head of the government is the definition of the Head of State (Schmidt, 224). Scholastic is a very trusted book and website monitor for most all of the schools across the states, and they give this definition of the Head of State. This role requires a president to be an inspiring example for the American people. In some nations, the chief of state is a king or a queen who wears a crown on special occasions, celebrates national holidays, and stands for the highest values and ideals of the country. As the American Chief of State, the president is a living symbol of the nation. It is considered a great honor for any citizen to shake the president's hand. (Teachers) The reason I believe the president is considered the master of ceremonies is because in much like all shows he is the one in the spot light most of the show and is the one that communicates all of the information to the audience. The president is always the targeted person and is always in the spotlight giving his speeches to America. The next duty of the president is to be the Chief Executive.

Craig 3 The Chief Executive has to role to be the head of the executive branch of the government. I really like the way the book describes the duties of the chief executive when it says The president is constitutionally bound to enforce the acts of Congress, the judgments of federal courts, and treaties signed by the United Sates. The duty to faithfully execute the laws has been a source of constitutional power for presidents (Schmidt, 224). This just reiterates the point made above that all 3 branches work together. The executive branch has to judge the federal courts and those federal courts fall under the judicial branch. The Executive branch also has to enforce the acts of congress and the treaties that need signing, and congress falls under the Legislative. Just like that there are all 3 branches working together. The next crucial job from the executive branch is the Commander in Chief. This is defined as the role of the president as supreme commander of the military forces of the United States and of the state National Guard units when they are called into federal service. This is the position that puts the president in charge of the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines. The president is not allowed to declare war but is totally allowed to send troops to wherever he wants. There is a lot of controversy around this position of the president, mostly because presidents are elected sometimes with little to no military experience. This becomes problematic when the president starts putting real people with families in to dangerous situations. In class we asked the class all of the characteristics of there perfect president and this is what they came up with. We want our president to be honest, loyal to the people, good negotiator, strong willed, service oriented, courageous, open minded, humble, respected/ respectful, have integrity and have military service. Of the many characteristics wanted, youll notice one of them is Military Service. Military Service is good for the president to have so that he will know what it feels like to be thrust into war and taken away from your family; it would also be helpful with strategizing

Craig 4 in war or when thinking about declaring it. The next position in the executive branch is he Chief Diplomat. The Chief Diplomat is the role of the president in recognizing foreign governments, making treaties, and effecting executive agreements (Schmidt, 227). The president decides what American diplomats and ambassadors shall say to foreign governments. With the help of advisers, the president makes the foreign policy of the United States (Scholastic). Some possible duties of the chief diplomat could be Traveling to London to meet with British leaders, entertaining Japanese diplomats in the White House, or writing a message or a letter to the leaders of the Soviet Union (Scholastic). Lastly the Chief Legislator is the one that influences the making of the laws (Schmidt, 228). The president cannot make a law but like the definition says its about influencing it. Congress could make a bill and then the president could veto it or sign it according to his liking. Those 5 roles of the executive branch are the main jobs for the president. It is crucial that they all get done because everyone is beneficial to the country. Some of the jobs get more focus then others at times but they are all important and a good president is going to be one that works with all 5 roles in perfect harmony. The president has a lot of other little powers like being able to declare a national emergency and many other similar ideas. This is only one branch of the government, each branch goes a lot more in depth with all of the work they do to keep this country safe and functioning. If one branch doesnt do their job correctly it is going to cause problems internally for the other branches and maybe to the public. We have a pretty good government, not as great as other countries but defiantly not a bad government. This is achieved by all the hard work of the branches and all of the thought put in to it by our founding fathers with the constitution.

Craig 5 Works Cited

Ben's Guide: Branches of Government (3-5)." Ben's Guide: Branches of Government (35). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, Barbara A. Bardes, and Lynne E. Ford. American Government and Politics Today. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

TEACHERS." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.