Chapter 12 (Presidency)
What does it meant for a VP to be a mouthpiece? What is an example?
Vice presidents were often sent on minor missions or used as mouthpieces for the administration, often with a sharp edge. Richard Nixon's vice president Spiro Agnew is an example. But in the 1970s, starting with Jimmy Carter, presidents made a far more conscious effort to make their vice presidents part of the governing team, placing them in charge of increasingly important issues.
Describe a line-item veto.
a power created through law in 1996 and overturned by the Supreme Court in 1998 that allowed the president to veto specific aspects of bills passed by Congress while signing into law what remained
Describe signing statements.
a statement a president issues with the intent to influence the way a specific bill the president signs should be enforced
Does Article II include specific or broad wording?
Article II of the Constitution lays out the agreed-upon requirements—the chief executive must be at least thirty-five years old and a "natural born" citizen of the United States (or a citizen at the time of the Constitution's adoption) who has been an inhabitant of the United States for at least fourteen years.6 While Article II also states that the term of office is four years and does not expressly limit the number of times a person might be elected president, after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times (from 1932 to 1944), the Twenty-Second Amendment was proposed and ratified, limiting the presidency to two four- year terms.
Do executive agreement have to be confirmed by the Senate?
Congress permitted the widespread use of executive agreements to formalize international relations, so long as important matters still came through the Senate in the form of treaties.
Who established the basis of the Office of the First Lady?
Eleanor Roosevelt established the foundations of what came to be known as the Office of the First Lady.
Describe Executive Orders and the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation - which cited the military necessity of declaring millions of slaves in Confederate-controlled territory to be free.
What does the strategy of "malign neglect" referring to?
More recently, the Senate has attempted a new strategy, refusing to hold hearings at all, a strategy of defeat.
What is the OMB? Is it given congressional approval?
Office of Management and Budget an office within the Executive Office of the President charged with producing the president's budget, overseeing its implementation, and overseeing the executive bureaucracy.
How have outsiders benefitted from how nominees are selected today?
The 2016 elections seem to support the idea that the primary process produces a nominee rather than party insiders. Outsiders Donald Trump on the Republican side and Senator Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side had much success despite significant concerns about them from party elites.
What does the 12th amendment entail?
This amendment changed the rules so that the president and vice president would be selected through separate elections within the Electoral College, and it altered the method that Congress used to fill the offices in the event that no candidate won a majority. The amendment essentially endorsed the new party system and helped prevent future controversies. It also served as an early effort by the two parties to collude to make it harder for an outsider to win the presidency.
What does it mean when the suffix "gate" is added to something?
cautionary tales of presidential power gone wrong, leaving behind legacies that include terms like Vietnam syndrome and the tendency to add the suffix "-gate" to scandals and controversies.
Describe the Executive Office of the President (EOP).
created by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), contains a number of advisory bodies, including the Council of Economic Advisers, the National Security Council, the OMB, and the Office of the Vice President.
Explain the difference between executive privilege, executive orders and executive agreements.
executive order - a rule or order issued by the president without the cooperation of Congress and having the force of law executive privilege - the president's right to withhold information from Congress, the judiciary, or the public executive agreement - an international agreement between the president and another country made by the executive branch and without formal consent by the Senate
Describe going public
involves the president delivering a major television address in the hope that Americans watching the address will be compelled to contact their House and Senate member and that such public pressure will result in the legislators supporting the president on a major piece of legislation.
Describe the power of pardons. Are they checked?
right of the leader of a country to forgive someone for a crime, or to excuse someone from a punishment.
Describe impeachment
the act of charging a government official with serious wrongdoing, which in some cases may lead to the removal of that official from office
Explain the relationship between the 12th amendment and the 2000 Election.
The nation almost found out in 2000. In the presidential election of that year, the Republican ticket won the election by a very narrow electoral margin. To win the presidency or vice presidency, a candidate must get 270 electoral votes (a majority). George W. Bush and Dick Cheney won by the skin of their teeth with just 271. Both, however, were living in Texas. This should have meant that Texas's 32 electoral votes could have gone to only one or the other. Cheney anticipated this problem and had earlier registered to vote in Wyoming, where he was originally from and where he had served as a representative years earlier.
