I Dont Understand the Office of the Presidency!

[Kotin]

I have been thinking..


the office of the President is very strange to me..

i mean, why is it that the most important office, the Leader of our military, is almost

always a civilian, and elected more or less by popular vote??


one person, who frames our foreign policy..


wtf, explain this to me.

[garrettwombat]

usually they have gone to ivy league and have had military experience in the past and especially past political experience.

i dont really recall average every day citizens getting elected as president.

[Zera]

Ideally, the president can't make all the decisions (checks and balances). It's just that with the recent politics with Mr. Bush, people seem to have forgotten that...

[RSLudlum]

I remember hearing RP say in an interview that this moment in time the President of the United States can change the entire world through foreign policy....

It is a very, very powerful position to hold.

[Shed]

The President isn't supposed to have sole control of foreign policy. The Senate has to ratify treaties, the Congress declares war, and otherwise the Founders advised not to get involved in other nations' affairs. I don't think the Founders ever imagined the USA would become an empire when they debated the framing of the Constitution.

[Banana]

I've held to the idea that President should be thought of more like a administrator rather than a figurehead. It is unfortunate that we've had too many Presidents who were all but deified during their tenure, opening the door to expansion of power beyond what was originally intended. Nobody thinks "Hey, we need to throw out the Congress and elect some sensible senators and representatives!" Rather, it's always framed in terms of presidency. Clinton gets the credit for great economy by virtue of having served during the boom years.

It's one thing where I sometime think British people were one up on us- they kept the Monarchy so the people would always have a figurehead to adulate around, leaving the Prime Minister to focus on more mundane policies.

[Broadlighter]

The executive office is not just about one man. It's a collective of individuals serving in different capacities like vice-President and department secretaries and all of their staff. You also have hidden advisers like Colnel House during Woodrow Wilson's term.

BTW, Didn't Herbert Hoover get blamed for the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression? Was it really his fault. During the 1992 campaign, the Democrats nicknamed George H. W. Bush as George Herbert Hoover Bush because of his handling of the economy.

Presidents typically get blamed and praised for economic changes, but in reality, it's much more complicated than that.