The President of the United States, the principal officer of the executive branch of the federal government. The Constitution of the United States provides that the "executive Power" of the federal government "shall be vested in a President." Therefore, the president is the principal officer of the executive branch of the government. Two other branches of the federal government--the legislative and the judicial--are constitutionally equal. But the president, who resides and works at the White House in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., has almost always been regarded as the most powerful figure in the government and as the leader of the nation.
The presidency enjoys a tradition of success in mastering challenge and change. Momentous developments have been initiated and directed into constructive channels by the president. The founding of the republic, the rise of democratic suffrage, and the emergence of the Union from the crucible of civil war are rightly identified with the respective presidencies of Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln. Social reforms of the 20th century and the nation's advent to the forefront of world affairs are linked with the administrations of Wilson and the Roosevelts. Nevertheless, the presidency has also known policy failures and political and personal scandals. Holders of the office have been both vilified and lampooned. Two presidents (A. Johnson and Clinton) were formally impeached; a third (Nixon) resigned before submitting to that process.
Creation of the Presidency.
In establishing the presidency the Founding Fathers had no precise models to follow. The earliest American executive, the colonial governor, had come to be regarded as the enemy of liberty, and the reigning British monarch, George III, as a symbol of tyranny. Under the Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), no separate executive existed. The Congress of the Confederation exercised all executive authority through committees and special agents, an arrangement that the Founding Fathers considered unsatisfactory. In the states, under typical constitutions established during the Revolution, the executive was weak. He served for one or two terms, was barred from reelection, and shared key powers with the legislature. New York and Massachusetts, whose governors were endowed with strong powers, were exceptions. Widespread abuses by the state legislatures in the period after the Revolution and the sharp decline in prestige of the Confederation Congress fostered a general disposition among the framers of the Constitution to create a strong executive that would balance the legislature.
Framing of the Constitution
In looking about for ideas applicable to a new national executive, the founders turned to the New York Constitution of 1777, where the governorship had several attractive features. The governor was not a creature of the legislature but was chosen outside it for a term of three years, and there was no limit on the number of terms that could be served.
The Constitution's framers were also influenced by political writers such as John Locke, Montesquieu, and Sir William Blackstone. All three theorists advocated a system of separation of powers, or strong and separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Montesquieu also advocated certain interaction among the three branches, permitting each to exert "checks and balances" against the others. These systems of divided governmental power provided bulwarks against tyranny and appealed to the framers.
Constitutional Provisions
The members of the Constitutional Convention settled for a single chief executive, chosen not by Congress but by a special body, the Electoral College. The president was to serve for four years, with indefinite eligibility for reelection to the office. The president must be a "natural born Citizen" and at least 35 years old.
The principle of separation of powers was applied in the sense that an executive, legislature, and judiciary were provided for, each in a different article of the Constitution.
The Constitution also incorporates a system of checks and balances. Thus the laws that Congress makes are subject to the president's veto and to judicial review. The president, in turn, is subject to congressional overriding of his veto, to impeachment, to senatorial approval of his treaties and appointments, and to judicial review of his actions.
Despite a certain dependence on Congress and the judiciary, the president emerged from the Constitutional Convention with strong powers. He was made commander in chief of the armed forces and given the power to appoint many public officials, to make treaties, to receive ambassadors and ministers, to grant reprieves and pardons, and to enforce the laws. He could recommend legislation in messages to Congress and veto measures passed by the legislature; he could call either or both houses into special session and adjourn them if they disagreed as to the time of adjournment.
Presidential Power: Historical Survey
The president's powers, as specified in the Constitution, have changed remarkably little since 1789. Only four amendments have been adopted that pertain to the presidency directly, and of these only two are important to its operations. One, the 22nd Amendment (1951), limits the president to two terms. A consequence of this amendment is the weakening of the president's influence in the latter part of his second term. With no prospect of reelection, the president can be less responsive to public opinion. The other important amendment, the 25th Amendment (1967), provides a means for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. It also provides a means for the Vice-President to become acting president during presidential disability. Of the other two amendments, the 12th Amendment (1804) alters the procedure for electing the president by separating the vote in the Electoral College for president from the vote for vice president. The 20th Amendment (1933) shortens the interval between the president's election and the inauguration. The president is elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year.
Although the president's formal constitutional powers have remained relatively constant, presidential influence on public affairs has fluctuated. In times of crisis, whether of war or of economic decline, the president tends to dominate the governmental scene - - consider the increased approval ratings for President George W. Bush since the September 11th attacks. These are situations for which executive power, with its capacity for speed and resolution, secrecy and flexibility of method, is especially appropriate. In eras of relative tranquility or of absorption in domestic and private affairs, such as characterized great stretches of the 19th century, Congress rises in relative importance, and the presidency declines. In the 20th century, as the economy has grown more complex and sensitive and the nation has become more deeply involved in foreign affairs, the president's role has increased. The president's personal force and political skill also do much to determine whether the chief executive or Congress will dominate. In any case, the constitutional apparatus of checks and balances provides a continuous struggle between the president and Congress for the direction of public affairs.
President versus Congress
The first chief executive, George Washington, gave the presidency a strong start. In foreign affairs he resolved several problematic situations in favor of the executive power and established precedents that no later period of congressional ascendance could overturn. Washington's decisions were based on a view of the presidency as largely autonomous in foreign affairs. Thus he accorded diplomatic recognition to republican France, issued a proclamation of neutrality in the Franco-British war declared in 1793, named the chief justice of the United States to negotiate Jay's Treaty with Britain, and refused to lay diplomatic correspondence regarding this treaty before the U.S. House.
Washington was a leader in legislation, largely due to secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton's skill in preparing his reports on the public credit, manufactures, a bank of the United States, and other subjects. These provided a basis for the most important legislation the earliest congresses enacted. Hamilton not only contributed authorship; his force as field commander of the developing Federalist party in Congress brought success to the administration's legislative program.
Washington's Successors
Where Washington triumphed as legislative leader, his successor, John Adams, failed. Adams's split with Hamilton hopelessly divided the Federalists in Congress and denied the administration vital support. The most significant legislation enacted, the Alien and Sedition Acts, became highly unpopular. Though he took no part in securing them, much of the storm of public resentment fell on Adams's shoulders.
In his relations with Congress, Thomas Jefferson acted more as party leader than as chief executive. His legislative messages were deferential, but despite his professed restraint, he actually exerted strong personal leadership behind the congressional scenes. He dominated his party's caucus. Floor leaders and committee chairmen were his chosen lieutenants, and he induced potential supporters to run in congressional elections. Timothy Pickering, a Federalist critic, captured the essence of the Jeffersonian approach in declaring that the president attempted to "screen himself from all responsibility by calling on Congress for advice and direction. ... Yet with affected modesty and deference he secretly dictates every measure which is seriously proposed." When necessity required, Jefferson departed from this formula and relied on presidential prerogative--powers granted him by the Constitution. He made the Louisiana Purchase on his own authority by executive agreement.
Jefferson's reliance on party leadership quickly weakened the presidency when the office passed into less capable hands. From 1808 to 1824 Congress dominated the selection of the president. The cabinets of James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams tended to be carryovers from the previous administration, which had chosen them from the ranks of Congress. The president was further subordinated by the practice of counting the votes of department heads as of equal weight with his own in cabinet meetings.
Jackson to McKinley
Andrew Jackson rescued the presidency from its hardening inferiority. Jackson ruled his cabinet and became the undoubted leader of his party. He introduced patronage on a grand scale and utilized it to recruit a bureaucracy loyal to his policies. He originated the national nominating convention to avoid the congressional caucus and to assure the elevation of his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren..
Jackson brandished presidential prerogative against South Carolina and his former Vice-President John C. Calhoun during the nullification crisis. His "war" against the second Bank of the United States, culminating in his veto of legislation renewing its charter, proved his mettle as legislative leader, and it established presidential authority over a powerful economic organization performing public functions.
The interval between Jackson and Lincoln was characterized by congressional resurgence. The process was similar to that of the post-Jeffersonian period and was speeded by the emergence after 1846 of the issue of slavery in the territories. The very nature of this tempestuous question required negotiation and compromise, for which Congress, particularly the Senate, was a more effective forum than the presidency.
The coming of Lincoln and the Civil War brought a new ascendance of the presidency. In asserting presidential authority to an extent never before known, Lincoln produced the novel doctrine of presidential "war power." Reading the commander-in-chief and the faithful-execution clauses of the Constitution in conjunction, and assessing the gravity of the nation's peril, he engaged in a series of extraordinary unilateral measures. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, expanded the army, imposed a blockade on Southern ports, and applied unappropriated money in the Treasury to the prosecution of the war. Under normal constitutional procedure each of these steps required prior congressional authorization, but Lincoln acted first and persuaded Congress to ratify his measures afterward. As the war proceeded, he continued to rely principally on existing presidential authority and held his dealings with Congress to a minimum. He paid little heed to his cabinet and was pleased to leave the bulk of his administration's relations with Congress to his department secretaries.
Andrew Johnson reaped the whirlwind of congressional reaction to Lincoln's policies when he tried to apply presidential war power to Reconstruction problems. The presidential formula, devised by Lincoln, combined the war power with the constitutional pardoning power to determine the conditions under which the seceded states would be restored to the Union. The Republican congressional leadership contended that the matter lay with Congress. A fierce struggle followed, typified by Johnson's veto of the bill to establish a stronger Freedmen's Bureau protecting the emancipated slaves and of the Civil Rights Act granting them the rights of citizenship and the protection of the federal courts. Congress passed the bills over the president's veto. In 1868 Johnson sought to remove Edwin M. Stanton, his secretary of war, in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which Congress had passed over his veto to tie his hands. Johnson was impeached, but he escaped dismissal by a single Senate vote.
From this time until 1901 Congress was again in political ascendance, except in the administrations of Grover Cleveland. Presidential incumbents of this period characteristically lacked political skill and force, thereby contributing to the growth of congressional power.
Modern Presidency
Theodore Roosevelt was the first modern president. He used foreign affairs as an instrument to catapult the presidency into worldwide influence. Adroit in creating or manipulating situations that involved the national honor or credit, he undertook several actions without obtaining senatorial consent as specified in the treaty-power clause of the Constitution. Thus Roosevelt took over the management of the Dominican Republic's customhouses when that country's European creditors were becoming restive, and the Senate withheld approval of a treaty on the subject. By supporting a Panamanian revolt against Colombia, he eventually secured the territory for the Panama Canal. In domestic policies he was a superb molder and interpreter of public opinion, and a leader of Congress. His triumphs included the Hepburn Act (1906), authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad rates; the Federal Employers' Liability Act (1908), covering railroad workers; and the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug acts (1906).
Woodrow Wilson's presidency was in many ways an extension of the Rooseveltian model. Wilson, too, proved a skillful leader in legislation and mover of public opinion. He began the modern practice of appearing before Congress to read key messages. His New Freedom, a collection of social and economic reforms, resulted in laws establishing the Federal Reserve System, strengthening earlier antitrust statutes, shortening the hours of railroad labor, and similar legislation. His legislative record is blemished by his defeat in the Senate over the League of Nations issue. As a war president, Wilson departed from Lincoln's practice, basing much of his administration's activity on previously enacted legislation.
In contrast to Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, Presidents William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover had far less impact because of their more conservative interpretations of presidential authority and their more limited skill and influence.
Franklin D. Roosevelt extended the methods of Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson, and his successors from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton basically followed these practices, with some variations. The contemporary presidency, since 1933, has stressed the president's capacity as legislative leader and involved him at every stage from the launching of a proposal for new legislation to its final enactment. The contemporary president is heavily involved in foreign and military affairs and in complex and sensitive problems of the economy and society. For all of their power and activity, presidents are vulnerable to congressional rebuff. Thus when Truman, after winning reelection in 1948, proposed a many-part legislative program, only one major proposal was enacted in a Congress dominated by his own party.
On the other hand, Lyndon Johnson, who was skilled in legislative politics and was favored with large Democratic majorities by the 1964 elections, set a record for legislative successes in moving his Great Society program and its extensive array of social and economic measures through Congress. Nixon enlarged the negative aspects of presidential power by vetoing social legislation and impounding funds. Reagan, during his first term in office, managed to persuade Congress to enact many of his "supply-side" economic proposals, including substantial tax cuts.
Truman conducted war in Korea and Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in Vietnam with full autonomy. In dramatic reversals of Cold War policies, Nixon established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and expanded cooperation with Russia.
Supreme Court and Presidential Power
The Supreme Court has seldom rebuffed the exercise of presidential power. Thus the court refused repeatedly to rule on the legality of the Vietnamese War. Typically, when faced with cases involving presidential authority, the court has sought to rationalize the president's actions or to pass by altogether a scrutiny of their legality. Among the cases in which the court has affirmed presidential power is United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936), acknowledging a broad presidential power to make executive agreements with other nations. Executive agreements, unlike treaties, do not require senatorial approval.
In Myers v. United States (1926), the court seemed to find an unlimited power in the president to remove subordinates. The Myers doctrine was modified in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), involving presidential removal of a federal trade commissioner. The court ruled that the president could not remove an officer engaging in quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial duties except for cause provided in statute.
The Supreme Court has, in other instances, struck down presidential assertions of power. After the close of the Civil War, the court struck down, in Ex parte Milligan (1866), a presidential authorization of the trial of civilians by a military commission in an area far removed from the theater of war. In Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935), the court held unconstitutional executive orders regulating the economy under broad authority delegated by Congress. In Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), Truman's seizure of the steel mills on his own prerogative was held unconstitutional.
The court has been more assertive in passing on the constitutionality of acts of Congress, with indirect but important consequences for the president. Thus in the 1930s the court invalidated the National Industrial Recovery Act, the first Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the first Guffey Soft Coal Act. Although ostensibly the court's rulings affected acts of Congress, in reality much of President Roosevelt's New Deal program was at stake because the legislation the court was passing on incorporated it. In Clinton v. City of New York (1998), the court invalidated a federal law enabling the line-item veto, a means by which the chief executive would be permitted to eliminate so-called pork-barrel provisions from Congressional legislation.
The Presidency Today
The chief executive's large and continuous involvement in foreign affairs and national security increased greatly from the Spanish-American War (1898) to the end of World War II. Since 1945 this trend has been accelerated as the United States responded to a perceived communist challenge with foreign-aid programs, weapons development, wars in Korea and Vietnam, and participation in international bodies. Nixon led in easing or supplanting the Cold War with an era of negotiation and cooperation with communist countries. He ended the Vietnam War and introduced the Nixon Doctrine, which sought to reduce American forces overseas and to enlarge responsibilities of local peoples for their own defense.
As director of foreign affairs the president supervises diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries. As chief of state the president meets with a steady stream of foreign heads of state in Washington, conducts a sizable exchange of communications with various foreign chiefs, and occasionally attends "summit" conferences. Jimmy Carter assumed a crucial role in the effort to bring peace to the Middle East when he acted as mediator in the Camp David negotiations of 1978-1979.
Although the Constitution stipulates that Congress shall "declare war," the president has often committed U.S. forces to violent action and has conducted war even though Congress has not declared it. Historically, the president has claimed that the constitutional designation of commander in chief empowers the president to involve the armed forces in combat without specific congressional authorization, to protect American lives and interests. Thus Jefferson dispatched naval frigates to halt attacks by Tripolitan pirates on American shipping, and McKinley sent troops to China to help quell the Boxer Rebellion.
Of America's 11 serious, extended violent engagements with other countries, only 5 have evoked a congressional declaration of war: the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, and the two world wars. Of the wars that Congress has not declared, the most important are the Korean and Vietnam wars. In claiming authority to wage wars independently, presidents have cited, in addition to the commander-in-chief power, the executive-power clause and the faithful-execution clause of Article II of the Constitution. They have also cited obligations under the UN charter and treaties of alliance such as that with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in the Vietnam War. The air raids in Cambodia in 1973, the Nixon administration contended, were to induce North Vietnam's compliance with the Vietnam cease-fire agreement calling for a cease-fire in Cambodia.
Although Congress may choose not to declare war, it can express its will in a resolution such as the Gulf of Tonkin resolution (1964), approving beforehand, as a crisis develops, future presidential initiatives, including the use of force. Congress can also repeal such resolutions, provide or withhold appropriations, or attach conditions. Thus Congress and President Nixon agreed on Aug. 15, 1973, as a cutoff date for funds to support presidentially ordered air bombing in Cambodia. Nixon also agreed to seek congressional approval if U.S. military action was needed after that date.
National Economy and Social Justice
Any current president is expected to offer measures at frequent intervals to bring progress in matters such as civil rights, unemployment, education, and inflation. Presidential activity in these areas has been spurred by problems attending the nation's industrial growth, urbanization, and the need for more equal distribution of benefits from its political and economic system.
Acting in social and economic areas, the president may rely on existing statutes or request new authority. For example, the Sherman Act (1890), the Federal Trade Commission Act (1914), the Clayton Act (1914), and other laws are available to effect antitrust action. Statutes empower the president to impose wage, price, and rent controls, to lower tariffs, and to devalue the dollar in relation to foreign currencies. The president's budget and spending policies affect inflation and employment levels.
In addition, the president can take initiatives and apply pressures without resorting to Congress for approval. In his successful efforts to persuade the United States Steel Corporation to cancel an announced increase in the prices of its products in 1962, President Kennedy resorted to a variety of expedients, none of which involved a request for new legislative authority. In a press conference the president questioned the patriotism of the corporation's officials. The president and his department secretaries telephoned officials of other steel companies, conveying the impression that the administration would be pleased if their prices were not raised. Defense Department contracts were awarded to steel companies that abstained from price rises. An antitrust prosecution was launched against four steel firms, and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents investigated the stockholders' meeting of another steel company at which a price increase had been discussed. Johnson and Nixon also pressured steel companies to reduce price rises.
Although 19th-century presidents were sporadically attentive to social justice, their 20th-century successors have been far more occupied. No president since World War II has escaped the issue of black civil rights, and presidents played leading roles in securing civil rights legislation. Although Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal contained many innovative social policies, it was exceeded by Johnson's Great Society program, which included the first national education and health-care legislation, a war on poverty, and legislation designed to eliminate discrimination against African American citizens.
Nixon was the first contemporary president to align himself with business and property and to reduce the federal role in social programs. Calling for increased responsibilities for state and local government and private action, he moved to abolish the poverty program and to reduce federal outlays for health, education, job training, and day-care and other programs oriented to the poor. Presidents Reagan and Bush later pursued policies along the same lines.
Executive Branch
In carrying on activities in foreign and domestic affairs, the president receives a salary of $400,000 a year plus an expense account (both taxable), funds for travel and entertainment (tax free), and retirement benefits. The president is aided by the vast Executive Branch and its approximately 3 million civilian employees, organized into some 100 departments, agencies, boards, and commissions. Although this bureaucracy imposes many demands on the president, the experts in the Executive Branch provide the president with indispensable help in the development and implementation of policies, as well as in administrative routine.
The Executive Office of the President was established in 1939. A leading unit of the Executive Office is the White House Office staff, which includes the press and appointments secretaries, the president's assistant for national-security affairs, the counsel for congressional relations, various administrative assistants, and many clerical employees. A second division is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which prepares and oversees the executive budget and evaluates costs and benefits of bureau programs.
The Executive Office also includes the National Security Council, created in 1947 to assist the president in policy development in the fields of national security and foreign affairs. The council's statutory members are the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of defense. The president, who presides, may invite other officers to attend. Presidents have used the council unevenly and sometimes in crises have preferred to consult ad hoc groups of advisers and administrators.
Another important policy staff unit of the Executive Office is the Council of Economic Advisers, created by the Employment Act of 1946. The council helps the president prepare the annual economic report to Congress and undertakes special studies for the president.
The oldest source of collective policy advice is the cabinet, which originated in the Washington administration. Presidents have been erratic in their employment of the cabinet. Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon utilized it very little, while Truman and Eisenhower turned to it more. Since the creation of the National Security Council, the cabinet has tended to concentrate on domestic and political matters.
The power of the White House staff has grown substantially. Presidents have organized the staff according to two main patterns. One, typified by Johnson, disperses duties among presidential assistants. Functions were often shared and overlapping, and Johnson sometimes shifted his assistants' assignments. These methods enabled him to maximize his influence.
A second pattern, represented by Nixon, was more centralized and hierarchical. His White House office had a chief of staff who controlled access to the president and decided whom and what the president should see, thus influencing his decision-making process. The chief of staff had the power to keep cabinet secretaries and congressmen from seeing the president, making such contacts relatively infrequent. Nixon also had a domestic adviser whose influence in domestic policy surpassed that of most department heads. The adviser managed the Domestic Policy Staff, created in 1970 as a counterpart in membership and functioning to the National Security Council. But centralization sorely weakened the accountability of the Nixon staff. After Nixon learned that members of his staff and other persons had become involved in unlawful activities, he compounded the situation by joining them in efforts to conceal their misconduct from official investigators.
Since the Kennedy presidency the post of assistant for national-security affairs has at times been a powerful position. A 1970 reorganization enhanced the influence of the incumbent assistant, Henry Kissinger, in his established function as manager of the National Security Council by designating him chairman of key related interdepartmental committees, including those that review the military budget and the implementation of policies. Kissinger's own staff of nearly 100 assistants was a resource that emboldened the White House to reject departmental judgments and substitute its own. Widely regarded as wielding more power than the secretaries of state and defense, Kissinger prepared and participated in presidential summit meetings and conducted the negotiations to terminate the Vietnam War. Named secretary of state in 1973, Kissinger continued as assistant for national-security affairs until 1975.
Legislative and Party Leadership
In both foreign and domestic policy the president depends heavily on congressional support. Presidents propose new laws and the amendment and extension of old ones and require senatorial approval of appointments. The president pursues legislative objectives through various means. The annual State of the Union message, called for by the Constitution, is a collection of proposals in foreign, domestic, and military affairs that may constitute the principal agenda of the legislative session. Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt on have supplemented their messages with actual drafts of legislation, prepared by executive aides and sponsored by friendly congressmen, congresswomen and senators.
In January of each year, following the State of the Union message, the president sends two other messages to Congress. Under the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, an executive budget must be submitted, which, with its accompanying message, constitutes a detailed and systematic statement of program and policy objectives, the expenditures they require, and sources of financial support. The Employment Act of 1946 also calls for an annual economic report from the president, recommending legislation and policies to foster free competitive enterprise and to maintain employment, production, and purchasing power at maximum levels.
The president can exert personal persuasion on key legislative members and negotiate compromises needed to advance legislation. The president's assistants for congressional relations help in these tasks. The distribution of contracts, particularly for defense or civil-works construction, may be managed with an eye to encouraging a wavering legislator or rewarding a compliant one. The president can use the veto power, or threaten to use it, to discourage the inclusion of unfavorable or unacceptable statutory provisions.
Presidents can also use the weapons they have as the party leader. They can distribute patronage in a fashion that may reward or penalize interested legislators. They can give varying degrees of support to their party's candidates in congressional elections, ranging from mild endorsement to full-scale campaigning.
Executive Privilege
Presidents claim "executive privilege," or the power to withhold information from Congress and the courts, even though the subject is not dealt with directly in the Constitution. In 1796 Washington refused to give Congress full details about the Jay Treaty with Britain. Nearly all of his successors have followed his practice, and some have expanded it. Presidents have cited the need for confidentiality concerning their relations with high-ranking associates, requirements of public interest and national security, and the need to maintain the loyalty of executive branch employees.
In 1973, during the Watergate controversy, President Nixon refused to make White House documents available to congressional investigators or to allow aides to testify. He enlarged the doctrine of executive privilege to include former members of his White House staff. Nixon later agreed to let his associates testify but refused to honor subpoenas from congressional committees and special prosecutors--one of whom he dismissed--for taped conversations and documents believed to contain evidence bearing on the investigation. The Supreme Court, in United States v. Nixon (1974), rejected the president's contention that he possessed an absolute executive privilege and ordered the trial judge to review the material and forward relevant evidence to the prosecutor. In a 1997 decision the court ruled that a civil lawsuit against President Clinton could proceed because it concerned his nonofficial duties and thus did not disturb the separation of powers.
Molding Public Opinion
Some presidents have displayed outstanding competence at divining and rallying public opinion. The remarkable developments in communications technology in the 20th century have encouraged the exercise of these talents. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to rally public opinion by exploiting the press, Franklin Roosevelt used the "fireside chat" to reach the electorate, and Ronald Reagan's media skills gained him the nickname of "the Great Communicator." Bill Clinton proved to be especially adept at fielding questions in informal, televised "town meetings" and was not afraid to take his message directly to the people by appearing on talk shows during his election campaign.
The president reaches the public through press conferences, presented unedited on radio and television. The occasion can be used to make newsworthy announcements of policies and positions in which the president is especially interested. In addition, presidents can build opinion through public addresses and televised interviews and by soliciting the support of leaders of economic, religious, racial, and national groups. What the president says and does dominates the news.
Johnson and Nixon lacked the facility of the Roosevelts and Kennedy in media relations. Johnson, who excelled more in small groups than in larger ones, searched restlessly for a suitable forum for his news conferences. Difficulties often afflicted his relations with the press because of his method of controlling what was disclosed and when. If revelations leaked out, he sometimes changed his plan or policy, to the press's distress. He was also bedeviled by the "credibility gap"; during the Vietnam War, for example, official optimism often contrasted with the harsher realities.
Nixon's dealings with the media were marked by tension and aloofness. He seldom held press conferences, and during long intervals when he was secluded from the media, controversial policies sometimes developed without public comment or interpretation by the president. Outright conflict prevailed between the administration and the media. Vice President Spiro Agnew assailed the media; the administration subpoenaed reporters' raw notes and advocated legislation aimed at pressuring the television networks to present more "balanced" news coverage. White House investigators attempted to plug news leaks by wiretapping the telephones of reporters and officials.
Elections
By being elected or reelected, presidents presumably receive popular endorsement of the platform on which they have campaigned. They have, in effect, a mandate to transform the campaign platform into public policies during their four-year term of office. This connection between the president and the electorate has not always existed. The Founding Fathers endeavored to minimize popular influence by providing for the selection of the president by an Electoral College electors were originally conceived as wise, politically experienced, nonpartisan citizens who would apply their independent judgment.
This framework was undermined by the advent of Political Parties. The electors were converted into automatons, casting their votes according to the expressed wishes of their party. In time, the electors came to be chosen by popular vote, and the practice developed of giving all the electoral votes of a state to the presidential candidate receiving the largest number of popular votes. It is possible for a president to be elected despite receiving fewer popular votes than the opponent.
To win elections, the presidential candidate must present a program that will attract broad support among economic, national, racial, religious, and regional groups. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, developed a winning combination of southerners and such northern elements as big labor, city bosses, various national and religious groups, and independent voters. In the late 1990s it cost close to $25 million to mount an effective presidential election campaign, a situation that led to some instances of fund-raising abuse and to calls for national campaign-finance reform.
Those who have succeeded in being elected to the office have been, almost without exception, white males belonging to a Protestant religious background. One Roman Catholic, John F. Kennedy, was elected president, but as yet no woman or member of a racial or ethnic minority has managed to become president.
Role in National Life
The presidency, viewed in historical perspective, has proved extraordinarily adaptive to the changing needs of government and society. For almost a century the president's preoccupation was the establishment of the republic: launching it in the uncertain environment of 1789, expanding and aggrandizing its territory, and preserving the Union against the peril of division in the Civil War. It is the presidency, above all else, that builds for the republic its place in international affairs, whether in war or alliance or in various intermediate relations among nations.
The president has always been a symbol of the nation--its hopes, fears, aspirations, and disappointments. Yet today, more so than in the past, the person of the president has become a source of endless fascination for the media and the public. Every personal appearance, every utterance, every movement of the chief executive is carefully watched, reported, and interpreted; and every such action, therefore, has been carefully crafted beforehand by members of the president's public relations staff (popularly known as handlers). In such an environment one of the president's most important leadership skills is that of being able to discern the mood of the nation and present a compelling vision of the historical possibilities of the time.
