
[[Image:USPresidentialSeal.jpg|220px|thumb|Seal of the President of the United States]] The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. Under the United States Constitution, the President is also the head of government of the Federal Government of the United States and commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces. Because of the superpower status of the United States, the American President is considered by many to be the most powerful person on Earth, and is usually one of the world's best-known public figures. During the Cold War, the President was sometimes referred to as "the leader of the free world," a phrase that is still invoked today, mostly by Americans. The United States was the first nation to create the office of President, the head of government in a republic. Today the office is widely emulated all over the world in nations with a presidential system of government. The current President of the United States is George W. Bush. == Requirements to hold office == Section One of Article Two of the United States Constitution of the U.S. Constitution establishes the requirements one must meet in order to become President. The president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States (or a citizen of the United States at the time the U.S. Constitution was adopted), be at least 35 years of age, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. The natural-born citizenship requirement has been the subject of some controversy in recent years. Some commentators argue that the clause should be repealed because it excludes qualified people based on technicalities, and fails to appreciate the contributions made by immigrants to American society. Prominent public officials that are barred from the presidency because they were not born U.S. citizens include California Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in Austria; Florida United States Senate Mel Martinez and United States Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, both born in Cuba; United States Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, born in Republic of China; United States Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, born in the United Kingdom; former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, born in Czechoslovakia; and Michigan List of Governors of Michigan Jennifer Granholm, born in British Columbia, Canada. Occasionally, constitutional amendments are proposed to remove or amend this requirement, but none have yet been successful. Under the Constitution, the President serves a four-year term. Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution (which took effect in 1951 and was first applied to Dwight D. Eisenhower starting in 1953) term limit the president to either two four-year terms or a maximum of ten years in office should he have succeeded to the Presidency previously and served less than two years completing his predecessor's term. Since then, three presidents have served two full terms: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Incumbent President George W. Bush will become the fourth at the completion of his current term in 2008. ==Presidential elections== U.S. presidential elections are held every four years. Presidents are elected indirectly, through the U.S. Electoral College. The President and the Vice President of the United States are the only two nationally elected officials in the United States. (Legislators are elected on a state-by-state basis; other executive officers and judges are appointed.) Originally, each elector voted for two people for President. The votes were tallied and the person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided that such a number was a majority of electors) became President, while the individual who was in second place became Vice President. The ratification of Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1804 changed the electoral process by directing the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice President. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes, or if no candidate receives a majority, the President and Vice President are chosen by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, respectively, as necessary. Since 1933, with the ratification of Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a newly-elected President, or a re-elected incumbent, is sworn into office on January 20 of the year following the election, an event called Inauguration Day. Although the Chief Justice of the United States usually administers the presidential oath of office, any federal judge can administer the oath — and even judges of federal district courts have fulfilled this duty in emergencies. See Sarah T. Hughes. On Inauguration Day, following the oath of office, the President customarily delivers an inaugural address which sets the tone for his administration. The modern Presidential election process begins with the U.S. presidential primarys, during which the major parties (currently the United States Democratic Partys and the United States Republican Partys) each select a nominee to unite behind; the nominee in turn selects a running mate to join him on the ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. The two major candidates then face off in the general election, usually participating in American presidential debate before Election Day (United States) and campaigning across the country to explain their views and plans to the voters. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states, through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives. [[Image:George-Washington.jpg|200px|right|thumb|George Washington, 1st President (1789-1797)]] In accordance with Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution, upon entering office, the President must take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Only presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover have chosen to affirm rather than swear. The oath is traditionally ended with, "So help me God," although for religious reasons some Presidents have said, "So help me." ==Presidential powers== ''Main article: Powers of the President of the United States'' The office of president of the United States is one of the most powerful offices of its kind in the world. The president, the United States Constitution says, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, the president presides over the executive branch of the federal government — a vast organization numbering about 4 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel. In addition, the president has important legislative and judicial powers. == Succession == The United States presidential line of succession is a detailed list of government officials to serve or act as President upon a vacancy in the office due to death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and conviction). The line of 17 begins with the Vice President of the United States and ends with the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The United States Constitution provided that, if a President were to die, resign, or be removed from office, the "powers and duties" of the office would devolve upon the Vice President of the United States, but did not specify whether the Vice President would succeed to the office of President or merely act as President. After the death of William Henry Harrison, however, Vice President John Tyler asserted that he had become the President, not merely Acting President, and this precedent was followed in all subsequent cases. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution eliminated this ambiguity by confirming the Vice President as first in the order as well as spelling out a process for him to serve as Acting President of the United States should the President become disabled. A provision of the United States Code () establishes the rest of the succession line. To date no officer other than the Vice President of the United States has been called upon to act as President. == Office-holders == For a list of persons who served as the President of the United States following the ratification of the United States Constitution see the list of Presidents of the United States. (For leaders prior to this ratification, see President of the Continental Congress.) == Timeline == * Martin Van Buren, born December 5, 1782, was the first president born after the United States Declaration of Independence and was thus arguably the first president who was not born a British subject. Interestingly, he is also the first president not of British descent. * John Tyler, born March 29, 1790, was the first president born after the adoption of the United States Constitution, all presidents born before him were eligible to be president because they were citizens at the time the Constitution was adopted, not because they were natural born citizens. (Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, before the Constitution was adopted). * Franklin Pierce, born November 23, 1804, was the first president born in the 19th century. Millard Fillmore was born January 7 1800; however, 1801 marked the first year of the 19th century, not 1800. * Warren Harding, born November 2 1865, was the first president born after the American Civil War. Lee surrendered 9 April 1865. * John F. Kennedy, born May 29, 1917, was the first president born in the 20th century. ** Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, was born on August 27 1908. Three other Presidents who followed Johnson in office were also born before Kennedy (in order of birth, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford). * Jimmy Carter, born October 1 1924, was the first president born after World War I. ** George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Carter's successor, was born on June 12, 1924. * Bill Clinton, born August 19 1946, was the first president born after World War II. ** Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, was born July 6 1946. ==Graphical timeline== == Former Presidents == After a president of the U.S. leaves office, the title "President" continues to be applied to that person the rest of his life. Former presidents continue to be important national figures, and in some cases go on to successful post-presidential careers. Notable examples have included William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Jimmy Carter's current career as a global human rights campaigner and best-selling writer. Andrew Johnson was elected to the same Senate that tried his impeachment after his term was over. [[image:pres38-42.jpg|thumb|250px|Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and their wives at the funeral of President Richard Nixon on 27 April 1994.]] As of 2005, there are four living former presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The most recently deceased President is Ronald Reagan, who died in June 2004. There have never been more than five former presidents alive at any given time in American history. There have been three periods during which five former presidents were alive: *From March 4, 1861, to January 18, 1862, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan were living (during the Abraham Lincoln, until the death of Tyler). *From January 20, 1993, to April 22, 1994, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush were living (during the Bill Clinton, until the death of Nixon). *From January 20, 2001, to June 5, 2004, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were living (during the George W. Bush, until the death of Reagan). There have been six periods in American history during which no former presidents were alive: *April 30, 1789 - March 4, 1797: The trivial case of George Washington, the first president. *December 14, 1799 - March 4, 1801: from the death of former President George Washington until incumbent President John Adams left office (no former president would die until Adams and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, both did so on July 4 1826). *July 31, 1875 - March 4, 1877: from the death of former President Andrew Johnson until incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant left office (no former president would die until Grant did so in 1885 although incumbent President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881). *June 24, 1908 - March 4, 1909: from the death of former President Grover Cleveland until incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt left office (no former president would die until Roosevelt did so in 1919). *January 5, 1933 - March 4, 1933: from the death of former President Calvin Coolidge until incumbent President Herbert Hoover left office (no former president would die until Hoover did so in 1964 although incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office in 1945 and incumbent President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963). *January 22, 1973 - August 9, 1974: from the death of former President Lyndon Johnson until incumbent President Richard Nixon resigned (no former president would die until Nixon did so in 1994). Herbert Hoover had the longest post-presidency, 31 years. He left office in 1933 and died in 1964. James K. Polk had the shortest post-presidency. He died on June 15, 1849, a mere three months after the expiration of his term. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only President to serve more than 8 years in the office (1933-1945). Prior to his administration, presidents chose to follow the example set by George Washington to limit their tenure to two terms or less. Following the passage of the Amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Twenty-second_Amendment_.281951.29 in 1951, however, a two-term limit became the law. Between the birth of George Washington in 1732 and the birth of Bill Clinton in 1946, future presidents have been born in every decade except two: the 1810s and the 1930s. Between the death of George Washington in 1799 and the present, presidents or ex-presidents have died in every decade except four: the 1800s, 1810s, 1950s, and 1980s. == Presidential salary and benefits == {| border=1 align=right cellpadding=2 cellspacing=1 style="margin-left:0.5em; border-collapse:collapse;" |+ Presidential Pay History |- bgcolor="#efefef" ! Date established !! Salary |- | September 24, 1789 ||align=right| $25,000 |- | March 3, 1873 ||align=right| $50,000 |- | March 4, 1909 ||align=right| $75,000 |- | January 19, 1949 || $100,000 |- | January 20, 1969 || $200,000 |- | January 20, 2001 || $400,000 |} The First United States Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year — a significant sum in 1789. Washington, already a successful man, refused to accept his salary. Since 2001, the President has earned a salary of $400,000 a year. Traditionally, the President, as the most important official in the government of the United States, is the highest-paid government employee. Consequently, the President's salary serves as a cap of sorts for all other federal officials, such as the Chief Justice of the United States. The raise for 2001 was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 because other officials who receive annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching the President's. Consequently, in order to raise the salaries of the other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised as well. Modern Presidents enjoy many non-salary benefits such as living and working in the spacious White House mansion in Washington, DC. While traveling, the President is able to conduct all the functions of the office aboard several specially-built Boeing 747s, which take the call sign Air Force One when the President is aboard. The President travels around Washington in an armored Cadillac (automobile) limousine, equipped with bullet-proof windows and tires and a self-contained ventilation system in the event of a biological or chemical attack. When traveling longer distances around the Washington area or on presidential trips, the President travels aboard the presidential helicopter, which takes the call sign Marine One when the president is aboard. Additionally, the President has full use of Camp David in Maryland, a sprawling retreat occasionally used as a casual setting for hosting foreign dignitaries. The President and his family are protected at all times by an extensive United States Secret Service detail. Until 1997, all former Presidents and their families were protected by the Secret Service until the President's death. The last President to have lifetime Secret Service protection is Bill Clinton; George W. Bush and all subsequent Presidents will be protected by the Secret Service for a maximum of 10 years after leaving office. Presidents continue to enjoy other benefits after leaving office such as free mailing privileges, free office space, the right to hold a passport and budgets for office help and staff assistance. However, it was not until after Harry S. Truman (1958) that Presidents received a pension after they left office. Additionally, since the presidency of Herbert Hoover, Presidents receive funding from the National Archives and Records Administration upon leaving office to establish their own presidential library. These are not traditional libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials for each President since Herbert Hoover. The President has the use of: *Air Force One *Army One *Coast Guard One *Executive One *Marine One *Navy One ==Presidential residences== The President's principal workplace and official residence is the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC (northwest) in Washington, DC. His official vacation or weekend residence is Camp David in Maryland. Many Presidents have also had their List of U.S. Presidential residences. ==Presidential facts== ===Transition events=== *Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated while in office: **Abraham Lincoln in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth **James Garfield in 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau (Guiteau shot him but Garfield arguably died due to subsequent incorrect medical care) **William McKinley in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz **John F. Kennedy in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/warren_commission/warren_commission_report_chapter1.html] although many theories suggest additional gunmen. [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/house_select_committee/committee_report_gunmen.html] *Four others died in office of natural causes: **William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841 **Zachary Taylor, died of "acute indigestion" in 1850 **Warren G. Harding, died of heart attack in 1923 **Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1945 *One President resigned from office: **Richard Nixon in 1974 *Two Presidents have been impeachment, though neither was subsequently convicted: **Andrew Johnson in 1868 **Bill Clinton in 1999 *Four Presidents have been elected without a plurality of popular votes: **John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1824 ***However, in six of the then twenty-four states in 1824, the electors were chosen by the state legislature, with no popular vote. **Rutherford B. Hayes - trailed Samuel J. Tilden by 264,292 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1876 **Benjamin Harrison - trailed Grover Cleveland 95,713 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1888 **George W. Bush - trailed Al Gore by 540,520 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 2000 *Eleven Presidents have been elected fourteen times without a majority of popular votes (but with a plurality of popular votes): **James K. Polk - 49.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1844 **Zachary Taylor - 47.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1848 **James Buchanan - 45.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1856 **Abraham Lincoln - 39.9% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1860 **James A. Garfield - 48.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1880 **Grover Cleveland - 48.8% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1884 **Grover Cleveland - 46.0% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1892 **Woodrow Wilson - 41.8% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1912 **Woodrow Wilson - 49.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1916 **Harry S. Truman - 49.7% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1948 **John F. Kennedy - 49.7% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1960 **Richard Nixon - 43.2% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1968 **Bill Clinton - 42.9% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1992 **Bill Clinton - 49.2% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1996 *Two Presidents have been elected without a majority of electoral votes, and were chosen by the House of Representatives: **Thomas Jefferson - finished with same number of electoral votes as Aaron Burr in the U.S. presidential election, 1800 **John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 15 electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1824 *Eight Presidents took office without being elected to the Presidency, having been elected as Vice Presidents and then promoted from that position: ** Four of them did not run to succeed themselves, and were never elected president. ***John Tyler - Assumed the Presidency on the death of William Henry Harrison, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1844 ***Millard Fillmore - Succeeded Zachary Taylor, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1852 ***Andrew Johnson - Succeeded Abraham Lincoln, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1868 ***Chester A. Arthur - Succeeded James Garfield, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1884 ** The other four later ran for president, and were elected to succeed themselves as president: ***Theodore Roosevelt - Succeeded William McKinley, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1904 ***Calvin Coolidge - Succeeded Warren G. Harding, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1924 ***Harry S. Truman - Succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1948, but did not run again in the U.S. presidential election, 1952, despite being eligible for a third term. ***Lyndon B. Johnson - Succeeded John F. Kennedy, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1964, but did not run again in the U.S. presidential election, 1968 *One President, Gerald Ford, was never elected but was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon (with approval from Congress) upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, succeeded to the Presidency after Nixon's resignation, and was defeated in the U.S. presidential election, 1976 by Jimmy Carter. He remains the only President neither elected as President nor as Vice President. *Four Presidents had never held any prior elected office: **Zachary Taylor **Ulysses S. Grant **Herbert Hoover **Dwight D. Eisenhower *An urban legend claims that David Rice Atchison was the 11 1/2 president of the United States for one day on March 4, 1849 in between the terms of James K. Polk (whose term expired at noon on 4 March) and Zachary Taylor (who chose not to be sworn in until 5 March). However, the logic of this is contradictory. If one does not consider Taylor to have officially become President until the administration of his Oath of Office, then the same logic precludes any person from having automatically succeeded before likewise having taken the same Oath. In fact, Taylor, as President-elect, automatically acceded to the Office of President upon the expiration of Polk's term, even if he did not yet enter into the execution of that Office until the Oath was administered. This fact was confirmed by Congress when it certified his election, as it defined the beginning of the administration as the instant Polk left office. Even if supposing, for the sake of argument, the rather odd interpretation that only Presidents-elect are required to take the Oath before officially occupying the Office, whilst officials in the Presidential Line of Succession occupy the Presidency ipso facto, then there would be a long list of dozens of additional "Presidents" who only held the office for a matter of hours or minutes. *Stephen Grover Cleveland had two non-consecutive terms as President, and is counted both as the 22nd and the 24th President, as can be confirmed from the list above. Consequently, all subsequent Presidents who are referred to as "theth President of the United States" are actually the th person to hold the office. E.g., George W. Bush, 43rd President, is actually the 42nd person to be President.
===Other facts===
While most presidents have been of substantially English descent, there have been a few who came from a different background:
*Predominantly The Netherlands: Martin Van Buren
**Although Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt had Dutch names, neither was predominantly Dutch; each had only one Dutch grandfather. Theodore's other three grandparents were all North British; Franklin's other three grandparents were of Puritan stock.
*Predominantly Germany: Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower
*Predominantly Ireland: Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton
**Kennedy was also America's only Roman Catholic Church president.
*No women nor non-Whites males have yet served as President of the United States.
*Only one president, James Buchanan, remained a bachelor.
*A 1999 survey of academic historians by CSPAN found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt the three best presidents by a wide margin and William Henry Harrison, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan the worst [http://www.americanpresidents.org/survey/historians/performance.asp]. A 2000 survey by ''The Washington Post'' deemed George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt to be the only "great" Presidents while Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, and James Buchanan were regarded the only "failures" [http://www.opinionjournal.com/hail/rankings.html].
*The United States Secret Service and some agencies in the government use acronyms as jargon. Since the Harry Truman the President of the United States has been called POTUS, pronounced "poh-tuss". The wife of the President, traditionally referred to as the First Lady of the United States is called FLOTUS, pronounced "flo-tuss". The Vice President of the United States is often abbreviated to VPOTUS, pronounced "vee-poh-tuss".
*The President is known to be able to affect trends in popular culture. An endorsement of a book or a movie by a president can easily launch the career of a author or a filmmaker. For example, Ronald Reagan's admiration of ''The Hunt For Red October'' caused Tom Clancy to become a nationally acclaimed bestselling author, something that may never have happened had it not been for Reagan's endorsement.
[[Image:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|thumb|Presidential authority, past and present: Air Force One flying over Mount Rushmore]]
===Presidential trivia lists===
===Presidential candidate trivia lists===
* List of major party U.S. presidental candidates who lost their home state
* List of unsuccessful major-party U.S. presidential candidates military service
* List of unsuccessful U.S. Presidential assassination attempts
* List of unsuccessful U.S. Presidential candidates who received at least one electoral vote
== Related topics ==
* President of the Continental Congress
* Presidential reputation
* Presidential Service Badge
* Executive branch
* Executive privilege
* Air Force One
* Tecumseh's curse
* List of fictional U.S. Presidents
* List of fictional U.S. Vice Presidents
* List of fictional U.S. Presidential candidates
* Fiction regarding United States presidential succession
* List of actors who played President of the United States
==Further reading==
* Leonard Leo, James Taranto, and William J. Bennett. ''Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House.'' Simon and Schuster, June, 2004, hardcover, 304 pages, ISBN 0743254333
* Waldman, Michael, and George Stephanopoulos, ''My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush.'' Sourcebooks Trade. September 2003. ISBN 1402200277
* Couch, Ernie, ''Presidential Trivia.'' Rutledge Hill Press. 1 March 1996. ISBN 1558534121
* Lang, J. Stephen, ''The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia.'' Pelican Publishing. September 2001. ISBN 1565548779
==Past and future Presidential elections==
==External links==
* [http://geoelections.free.fr The maps by counties of the presidential elections since 1856]
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/ Official White House website]
* [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara: 52,000+ Presidential Documents)]
* [http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ Internet Public Library: POTUS]
* [http://www.blue-blood.co.uk Genealogies of the Presidents]
* [http://www.usa-presidents.info/inaugural/ Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States]
* [http://www.geocities.com/americanpresidencynet/archive.htm Presidential Speeches Archive]
* [http://www.pagrandlodge.org/mlam/presidents/index.html The Masonic Presidents Tour]
* [http://www.geocities.com/americanpresidencynet/ The American Presidency - Selected Resources, an informal reference guide]
* [http://www.americanpresidents.org/ C-SPAN: Life Portraits of the American Presidents]
* [http://ericdigests.org/2001-3/presidency.htm Teaching about the U.S. Presidency]
* [http://american-presidents.blogspot.com/ American Presidents Blog]
* [http://college.hmco.com/history/us/norton/people_nation/7e/students/administrations/ Presidential Administrations: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Cabinet Members]
* [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/ State of the Union Addresses]
* [http://www.archontology.org/nations/us/uspres/ United States of America: Heads of State 1774-2005: election, inauguration, term, biography]
* [http://www.opinionjournal.com/hail/print_rankings.html Wall Street Journal Presidential Rankings]
Government of the United States
Executive Branch of the United States Government
Executive heads of state
Lists of office-holders
Presidents of the U.S.
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== Bush in office until 2009? == I have removed a reference to Bush leaving office in 2009. I do not believe that anyone can forsee the next four years. Although it is likely that he will serve a full second term, the possibility still exists that he may leave office by resignation, impeachment and removal, physical incapacity, etc. Since Wikipedia is supposed to report facts only, shouldn't it be listed that Bush's presidency is until "present"? User:Jwinters : I agree wholeheartedly with this - Wikipedia is not a political platform - it's an encyclopedia ; at the moment, we should simply be stating that Bush is still in office. I have put this page on my watch list and shall continue to revert any reference to 2009 back to "In Office" ; this is the way the table presents data for the List of British Prime Ministers - this page should be no different. -- User:Zaphod Beeblebrox 17:00, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) That is nonsensical. The standard way to deal with this is to state that his term will run until 2009. That leaves open the possibility that the term may be aborted due to death, resignation or removal from office. It is fundamentally wrong to state simply that someone is 'in office' as that blurs two distinct categories of people - those like presidents elected for specific terms, and those like the UK PM who once s/he ''kisses hands'' (ie., are appointed) remain continually in office until they resign or die. (The holding of general elections is of no consequence in so far as parliament does not elect the PM, let alone elect them after each general election. They continue on automatically until they resign, die or are dismissed.) Bush is not in that situation. He has a definite cut off point, January 2009, so that needs to be made clear, just as it needs to be made clear that Blair if he chooses and he does not lose a general election, could be in power well beyond 2009. (In theory he could be there in 2019 or even 2029, whereas Bush cannot be there after January 2009. That's the difference). User:Jtdirl 17:45, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) :That is nonsensical : the column on the table is labelled "Left Office" ; past tense. How can you label a column in the table with a date in the future if it's meant to designate an occasion that occured in the past? -- User:Zaphod Beeblebrox 17:58, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Saying that Bush "left office" in 2009 is as nonsensical as saying that Bush, then Gore, then Bush won Florida in 2000. If the timeline says "present" under "left office", and Bush leaves office early, the timeline would only be out-of-date. If the timeline says "2009" under "left office", and Bush leaves office early, the timeline would be inaccurate. I'm trying to prevent the possibility of an inaccuracy. The whole point is to report what is, or what has happened, not what is likely to happen. The fact that he cannot serve past 2009 can br inferred from the rest of the article (1 - Bush took office in 2001, 2 - He can only be elected to a maximum of 2 four-year terms). User:Jwinters 19:47, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) == Featured article status and miscellaneous objections == ''This was once a Wikipedia:Featured articles.'' See Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#President_of_the_United_States to learn what needs to be done to re-establish this article's status. :It isn't there anymore. I finally found it but since it took so long I will copy the debate here: Article should make more prominent mention of how presidents get their position in the first place (preferably at the beginning and nicely integrated with the flow of the text). Currently we have to make do with obscure links at the end to U.S. presidential election and U.S. Electoral College. -- Dissident 04:44, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) Done. jengod 01:34, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) This objection seems to have been addressed. What's the procedure for re-listing the article? Can anyone just add it back if there are no further objections? --Minesweeper 22:27, Mar 19, 2004 (UTC) I beg to make an objection (or rather, objections). Firstly, the Article does not seem to mention that the term limit does not apply in the case of terms lasting less than two years. Furthermore, it does not note that the term limits are relevant in the case of elections; an individual who has previously served two terms may suceed to the Presidency in the case of a vacancy. Secondly, the Article misrepresents the facts relating to the Twelfth Amendment. It states, "Since the ratification of Amendment XII in 1804 clarified the electoral process, the President and Vice President have been elected together as a ticket through the constitutionally mandated U.S. Electoral College." After the ratification of the Amendment, despite the statement in the article to the contrary, the President and Vice President are elected separately - not as a joint ticket. Thirdly, the article states, "The winning candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes." I object because the article does not state that a winning candidate can win in the House of Representatives if there is no majority in the Electoral College. Fourthly, I object to the structure of a sentence: " Thus, in order to raise the salaries of other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised to avoid surpassing the President." It would seem, reading the sentence, that the President's salary was surpassing his own, and therefore had to be raised - which of course does not appear logical. -- Emsworth 03:33, Mar 20, 2004 (UTC) ---- [unsigned qn by User:Mullickprashant moved from near top to bottom, where it is morelikely to be read & answered. --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 02:39, 2004 May 15 (UTC)~] == Form of address for presidents == I have an OLD book here (can't seem to locate a date on it) that says one of the "official" ways to refer to the President is "His Excellency, The President of the United States." I may be American (and proud!) but I'm not calling any president "His Excellency," that's just too much for me. :I asked a question about this before in a different forum after having seen an original death announcement for Lincoln, which referred to him as His Excellency. It seems that some effusive people, unaware that the president has no such title, would refer to him as Excellency. From time to time, some people from other parts of the world will address the president as Your Excellency (in letters and suchlike). Of course, this has never been formal usage (although for a while, they did consider whether the president should have some title, such as "Elective Majesty".) - user:Montrealais ''His Excellency'' is actually not a title but a Style - Manner of Address, ie a formal manner of address. There is no written Style for the US president but there is a spoken one, '' 'Mr. President' '', which is the same as 'Your Majesty' (UK), 'President' (Ireland), 'Your Holiness' (Holy See). 'Excellency' is a standard style applied to heads of state in republics. It may have been that one was introduced once and then dropped, or people just presumed like everyone else that the US president was addressed that way. If you get an invitation to the White House to meet some visiting head of state, the WH Protocol people will tell you to address them by their appropiate Style. User:Jtdirl 08:17 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC) ** Under the Congress of Vienna and generally recognnized forms of address, ANY head of state carries the title of "excellency" as well as the head of government (e.i. prime minister, premier, etc.) in some non English speaking monarchies. The fact that American protocol does not officially reserve "excellency" to the president does not mean he or she can not be address as such without breaking American social etiquette. It is a title of courtesy (which means it is not official or required. The style "excellency" is also an appropriate courtesy title when addressing state governors and several states have officially reserved the style to the governor including Massachusetts and Vermont. The Congress of Vienna also reserves "excellency" for ambassadors and other high ranking diplomats, this title is NOT accredited to the ambassador by his or her government but by the government and people of the host nation in which the ambassador is stationed in. Officially American protocol is to address any ambassador or high ranking diplomat (e.g. foreign minister, European Union head of delegation, Secretary General of U.N., etc.)as "excellency. As for not addressing a president etc. as "excellency" remember that it goes with the office not the person. You are honouring the highest office in the land or showing respect for an elected official by addressing him or her as "excellency." ---- Sorry for the poor formatting; I got the list from http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/. Looks like they've got more info, and I'd bet that info is in the public domain and therefore copyable? ---- An important question. Could you research this and report back? ---- The info at that site seems to come from copyrighted sources. information here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/copyright.html I can find no link between that address and http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/, however they are in the same folder and clearly contain information on the same subjects mentioned in the book on the U.S. presidents. The info above may fall under the :Feist v. Rural decision, i.e. that factual information, even in collections, in many instances is not copyrightable. I guess the question would be whether any of the "expressive" content of the author is present here; you should probably ask User::Lee Daniel Crocker, as it seems to be an area he's knowledgeable in. ''The actual text of the biographies there is indeed copyrighted by the WHHA, a non-governmental entity that is entitled to own copyrights, and so you can't copy any of that text. Simple factual information like where a president was born, what other offices he may have held, the names of his family members, etc. can certainly be learned from that site and written up here in your own words. There is no "creative selection" or "creative presentation" problem because we're including every president, in natural order, and presenting the information in our own way. Copyrights apply to "creativity", not "research". --LDC'' ==Andrew Johnson's party == Is Andrew Johnson considered a Republican? :Johnson's political allegiance was complex. - User:Calmypal 22:59, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC) :The Republican party made a shrewd political move when they brought a Democrat in as Vice-President to Lincoln. That didn't change Johnson's party affiliation, though, nor his ideals (as is clear from the later struggles between the Republicans and President Johnson). Although he ran on a Republican ticket, he remained a Democrat. Most histories ([http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/aj17.html], [http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumber=17], [http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ajohnson.html] for example) list him as a Democrat. User:SWAdair | User talk:SWAdair 07:42, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) ::Is there a reason why he's given the republican colour in the timeline table? And shouldn't John Tyler be treated the same way - also a Democrat VP elected on Whig ticket who then succeeds and falls out with his nominating party. ::Would it help to have another colour for such Presidents to distinguish them from those elected onb that party's ticket? User:Timrollpickering 20:13, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC) Johnson should be a listed as something like independant. He was a unionist in 1864 and when he ran with Lincoln it was a republican ticket. Due to the fact that it is complex we should make it independant. == Presidents under the Articles of Conf.? == So, it seems to me that it would be nice for this list to be in chronological order. That would require the presidents under the Articles to come before the presidents under the Constitution. Does anyone have any objections? -- EdwardOConnor :Well, since those guys weren't really Presidents of the United States (under the most common interpretation of what it means to really be the President of the United States), it makes sense to have them listed as they are, in a side-note. Perhaps they should even be moved to a separate page. --User::Jimbo Wales ::I guess I don't understand the common interpretation then. What it not the United States that won indepenence from Britain? It seems strange to think that it came about upon ratification of the Constitution, many years later. Mere anarchy was not loosed upon the land in the interim. (Note that it would be correct to say that I'm attacking a strawman here. :]) It seems to me that any reasonable interpretation of the phrase "president of the United States of America" has to take into account that both American governments have had such a position. Would it be correct to not list Arthur Griffith before Eamon de Valera on a hypothetical "Presidents of Ireland" page, merely because he was not president under the current Constitution? -- EdwardOConnor :::Actually it would. :::# Griffith wasn't President of Ireland, his title was President of Dáil Éireann, and deV would ''still'' go ahead of him because deV was his immediate predecessor in that office, though from August 22, 1921 to Griffith's election, it has been called President of the Irish Republic. :::# The 'Irish Republic' Griffith was president over was a different state, with a different name, covering a different land-mass. So Griffith was not President of Ireland, the head of state of the Republic of Ireland, he was Arthur Griffith, President of Dáil Éireann of the Irish Republic. User:Jtdirl 08:17 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC) :::The "presidents" under the Articles of Confederation were not the chief executives of the United States. They were the presiding officers of the Congress; the better analogy under the Constitution is to the Speaker of the House (or to the ''President'' pro tempore of the Senate). In other words, we do not list Presidents of the United States before George Washington because there were none, only Presidents of the Congress. User:Mateo SA 05:24, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) :Perhaps keep them in a separate list, but put that separate list before the "traditional" president listing? Aitchison was ''really'' briefly the President, so he should probably stay on this page no matter what ultimately happens to the others. ::This sounds reasonable to me. -- EdwardOConnor == Presidents' religious affiliations == Why are religious affiliations on the main list page? On a president's own page, sure, but on the main page? Party affiliation makes sense, but here, religion is no more relevant than shoe size, IMO. -- User::RjLesch :Agreed. -- EdwardOConnor :Religious affiliation is indeed more relevant than shoe size or boxers or briefs (:MTV viewers' voting criteria notwithstanding :-). One's religion can give insight into one's philosophy, worldview, etc. As for why I added them -- I did it because I happened to have collected the list out of an almanac several years ago. ''<>< User::tbc'' I think this claim needs to be shown, not merely told. I'd be interested to see an explanation of how Nixon's Quakerism influenced his decision to bomb Cambodia, for example. But until then, I think religious affiliation should be removed or moved somewhere else. - Tim :[the] Constitution". All thought this is no longer relevent, do you think it should be mentioned in the Requirements to hold office section? User:Dmn 22:23, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)
----
Why does a candidate for US President have to be a natural born citizen? I am trying to find information on what the arguments for this are?
[unsigned qn by User:Mullickprashant moved from near top to bottom, where it is morelikely to be read & answered. --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 02:39, 2004 May 15 (UTC)~]
:(For the sake of precision, i think you might find that others could theoretically be put on the ballot in some places. (Not clear offhand whether that would be illegal in itself, but presumably the Electoral College's action, in voting them in would be found to have been invalid.) It sounds like you already realize it's in the Constitution, which is the short answer. [wink] Check out Federalist Papers for an idea as to which of those essays might discuss the original reasoning. As for today, the best reason is bcz it would take a constitutional amendment to change it, even if the old reasons were bad or no longer to apply. And that is a big deal; much more so i believe than in most other countries. --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 02:39, 2004 May 15 (UTC)
The "natural born citizen" requirement was included to prevent the newly founded United States of America from being sabotaged, so to speak. It was a new, young country, using a new system of government. They had gained their independence through war. The last thing they wanted was for someone with allegiances to Britain or elsewhere to have access to the presidency, and potentially destroy what they had fought so hard to create.
Many people, by the way, misquote this requirement by saying that the president must be a "native born citizen" or that the president must be "US born." The requirement is to be a "natural born citizen". The Constitution, however, never defines what "natural born" means. Based on other laws drawn up at the time which make reference to the term "natural born", most Constitutional experts agree that a "natural born citizen" is a person who is a US citizen from the moment of his birth. This would include someone born in the US AND someone born abroad who received his US citizenship through his parents, by descent.
Ultimately, it would take the US Supreme Court to decide.
There's talk abuzz of amending the Constitution to allow naturalized citizens to become president. I think that the US is mature enough to allow this, personally. At the current time, it would probably face significant opposition from many in the Democratic party, as it would open the presidency to Arnold Schwarzenegger. User:Steggall 23:50, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
There was considerable controversy when George Romney was running for President because he was born in Mexico to US citizen parents, but there was absolutely no discussion when John McCain was running, even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. So nothing has been decided about this. Though at the time, many people said Alexander Hamilton couldn't be President because he wasn't born in what became the United States, though he was an citizen at the time of the creation of the Constitution. User:RickKUser talk:RickK 23:17, Oct 31, 2004 (UTC)
==Presidential photos==
Hi, I have received somme comments about why have I been replecing the photos of the presidents with the Official Portraits of them that are hanging on the White House. I think it is much more elegant to have the portrait of the Presidents, since it is tradition that every president should have a portrait made. But if anyone has problems with it, please feel free to talk about this. If people believe it should be better to to have the photos, well so be it. Cheers.
Coburnpharr04
:I have no objections to this, but we should not be orphaning photos so I've kept the photograph on top and the painting linked below. Of course,we can do it the other way around. Comments? --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 02:37, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
How about a compromise? We put the White House portrait in the table, and the photograph in the section of 'Presidency'. Mos encyclopedias do have an area that a table with the presidential facts and the White House Portrait.
What say you guys? User:Coburnpharr04
:Both versions are headshots, so I don't see the value of displaying both. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 05:23, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
[from user talk:Jiang]''My opinion: The lead image in biographical articles of modern persons should be a photo, not a portrait. By all means include the portrait as well, but further down. Official portraits are inevitable idealized versions of what people look like, and readers should be given a realistic image. User:Adam Carr 06:21, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)''
:A couple of things. 1) I prefer the photos at the top of the article as they more clearly identify the person (IMO). The portraits are somewhat idealized, and in some cases (Clinton and Reagan) just not very good. I've no objection to displaying the portraits lower in the article though. 2) Some of the images recently uploaded were in GIF and BMP formats. These are generally poor choices for photo/artistic type images. This type of image should be in JPEG format. (Isn't there advice on this in the style guide?) I realize the white house site may use GIFs, but for me that only argues in favor of using a higher quality photo JPEG. At the very least, the GIF and BMP images should be converted to PNG format. User:Bkonrad≠User talk:Bkonrad 14:44, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
::Format preference is found in Wikipedia:Image use policy among other places. User:Rmhermen 16:20, Jul 1, 2004 (UTC)
I add my opinion to those who are not overly fond of the whitehouse paintings replacing what has been there before. Some of them are good, and IMO would make a nice ADDITION to the article, but should not in all cases REPLACE what is there before. Many editors have contributed to the illustrations from many sources, I've scanned a few images from old public domain era sources which I otherwise have not seen on the web. I don't think these should be replaced with the copies of the exact same images that can be seen on whitehouse.gov. At the very least, I strongly urged that the old images be MOVED-- either down in the article, or to the talk page-- rather than removed from the article to become an orphan. -- User:Infrogmation 12:59, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
== Dead presidents ==
The list of periods when there were five former presidents alive and the list of periods when there were no former presidents alive seem to me to be rather arbitrary and not very useful trivia that just polute the page. Maybe move them to a seperate page and link them from the presidential trivia lists section? -- User:Svdb 02:36, 2004 Jul 7 (UTC)
:I second that emotion. User:Jengod 03:04, Jul 7, 2004 (UTC)
::Pollute the page? Why? It's no less arbitrary than any of the other trivia items. --User:68.226.91.122 02:55, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)
:::These trivia are the result of coincidence, and never had nor ever will have any influence on anything in the world. User:Svdb 17:14, 2004 Jul 17 (UTC)
== Hamilton and eligibility ==
The article says ''The natural-born citizenship requirement has been the subject of some controversy in recent years. The clause was apparently written by political enemies of Alexander Hamilton, who was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, and was thus not a US citizen at birth.'' Can this be right? Wasn't Hamilton "grandfathered in" by the rest of the clause, that says "a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution"? -User:PRiis 20:05, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
:Wikipedia:be bold and change it. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 23:25, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
OK, I've boldly removed this sentence: "The clause was apparently written by political enemies of Alexander Hamilton, who was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, and was thus not a US citizen at birth." There's good info on the origins of the eligilbility clause at http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/jyinger/facfa/history.htm --User:PRiis 03:22, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)
==Cabinets==
If any of you have time and are interested in contributing to the President pages, I'm working on getting uniformly formatted lists of Presidential Cabinet members in each POTUS article, under the subhed ==Jefferson Administration== or ==Roosevelt Administration== , etc. If you have any time, there is a template below.
Sources of the material include:
* [http://college.hmco.com/history/us/norton/people_nation/7e/students/administrations/ Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Cabinet Members]
* [http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ Internet Public Library: POTUS]
--User:Jengod
:Please don't include the president in the list. It's redundant. If we add the VP, then it's no longer necessary to have the VP listed in the first biographical box on the upper right hand corner. the first few VPs (Jefferson under President Adams) can't really be considered members of the administration. --User:202.181.207.71 15:51, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
==Jefferson Administration==
{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4" style="margin:3px; border:3px solid #000000;" align="left"
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="left"|TERM
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|President of the United States||align="left" |Thomas Jefferson||align="left"|1801–1809
|-
|align="left"|Vice President of the United States||align="left"|Aaron Burr||align="left"|1801–1805
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|George Clinton||align="left"|1805–1809
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of State||align="left"|James Madison||align="left"|1801–1809
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the Treasury||align="left"|Samuel Dexter||align="left"|1801
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Albert Gallatin||align="left"|1801–1809
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of War||align="left"|Henry Dearborn||align="left"|1801–1809
|-
|align="left"|Attorney General of the United States||align="left"|Levi Lincoln||align="left"|1801–1804
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Robert Smith||align="left"|1805
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|John Breckinridge||align="left"|1805–1806
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Caesar A. Rodney||align="left"|1807–1809
|-
|align="left"|Postmaster General of the United States||align="left"|Joseph Habersham||align="left"|1801
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Gideon Granger||align="left"|1801–1809
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the Navy||align="left"|Benjamin Stoddert||align="left"|1801
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Robert Smith||align="left"|1801–1809
|}
== Timeline section == User:SNIyer1 made some changes to the Timeline section. I basically reverted his changes, then added some information to clarify the issue: * For example, before SNIyer1's edits, one line said: ** John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century. * SNIyer1 changed this to: ** Lyndon Johnson was the first president born in the 20th century, even though John F. Kennedy was the first 20th century born president. * What SNIyer1 was trying to point out was that LBJ was actually born before Kennedy. However, the first listing is more accurate. This can be seen if you add some implied words to the line: ** John F. Kennedy was the first ''person to become'' president ''who was'' born in the 20th century. User:Mateo SA 00:53, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC) == Problem: == The page contains the following vandalism: Matt S 0wnz0rs j00 4ll. I was unable to edit it out. == Title for former Presidents == I seem to remember reading (somewhere!) that once a President leaves office, he (or she) is ''not'' allowed the title 'President' but instead reverts to the highest title he (or she) previously held - thus Bill Clinton is today Governor Clinton, and not President (or Ex-President) Clinton. If I am not mistaken, General George Washington specifically requested this, as it is the norm for all other official positions that the person who held them may use the title after they finish serving - could someone please confirm it? I am trying to find my source but I simply do not remember where (or for that matter when) I read it. Thanks, User:Minhnd 13:44, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) *According to some branch of the government (http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/politics/pres/oldpres.htm), when writing to former Presidents one should use 'The Honourable (President's name)'... does that imply that they should not be called 'President (name)'? User:Minhnd 13:51, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) * Ah-ha! I've found it... though I'm not sure as a source its ''entirely'' reliable... would you trust the [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A8709-2000Oct25¬Found=true Washington Post's Etiquette Maverick]? User:Minhnd 14:12, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) :I don't know what the precise rule is, but I've never heard Clinton referred to as "Governor Clinton" since he left office in 2001. "Former President Clinton" is the standard in the media. I'm not sure what he is called directly -- in office, it's "Mr. President;" not sure how you address a former president. User:Funnyhat 01:15, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) :CNN uses the "Former President Whoever" style. e.g. [http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/03/10/clinton.surgery/], [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/05/reagan.health/]. Reverting to a previous title is just silly, since they no longer hold that title, either. -- User:Dpark 01:27, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::They are almost invariably called ''President''. However ''President'' is no longer a title. It is what is called a Style (manner of address), in effect an honorific prefix that shows a formal respect for them for holding the highest office in the land. Similarly deposed monarchs are often called ''King '' even though they aren't officially king of anywhere. For example, the deposed Greek monarch is still called ''King Constantine of Greece''. That is why at the papal funeral there were references to ''President George W. Bush'' being accompanied by "President Bush" and "President Clinton" and comment was made about the absence of "President Carter". The 'President' reference is purely honorary. But they can never ever be called 'President of the United States', just as King Constantine should not be called 'King of Greece'. Fear''ÉIREANN''">User:Jtdirl 02:53, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
::: CNN clearly doesn't use that style. Neither do a number of other news agencies. Some of them do, and I think that's the official whitehouse preference, but it's not the only accepted style. -- User:Dpark 03:55, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
==11 1/2th President==
*I distinctly remember seeing on the children's historical TV show a reference to an "11 1/2th President". The circumstances were that the guy who was to be named president wasn't on hand at the moment or something. There was this great song and everything. And the question is: does anyone here remember that guy's name? -User:Litefantastic 01:58, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)
*I can't remember his name (David Atchison? I'm not sure), but he became President for a day when Zachary Taylor refused to take the oath on a Sunday. Since Polk's term ended at noon that day, the president pro tempore of the Senate became President until Taylor took the oath the next day. Apparently he slept all day. --User:Zakharov 19:17, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)
==Nationally Elected?==
''"The President and the Vice President are the only two nationally elected officials in the United States."''
This sentence characterizes the act of electing as a national act. Yet it is fair to say that the election of the President and Vice President has at least as many federal as national characteristics, a subtle, yet crucially important point politically. The apportionment of electors among the states is partly federal (treating each state with equal weight) and partly national (treating each citizen with equal weight); when the House and Senate exercise their contingent powers, each state is granted equal weight; in the manner of choosing the electors, each state conducts its own separate election, a federal, not national, arrangement; in the process of casting electoral votes, the electors meet separately in their respective state capitals, again a federal arrangement.
I suspect that what the author meant to convey is that the President and Vice President are the only elected officials in whose election citizens of all states participate, nationwide. Would it not be more correct to replace the words "nationally elected officials" with "officials elected nationwide"? User:Pgva 09:19, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
== Two sections both named "Presidential Elections" ==
Might it be worth merging the two together...? --User:Rebroad 16:18, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
: Changed the second to "Past and future Presidential elections". I think putting that table at the top would be poor style, and moving the other section to the bottom would put things in a strange order. -- User:Dpark 04:02, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Problem with the Air Force One picture ==
Ok, is it just me, or does anyone else notice something wrong with this picture....?? --User:Rebroad 21:34, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
*What do you mean? It's a featured picture, comes fromn a government source, I added it to fill in the blank space and because I thought it was a strong symbol of the power of the presidency.--User:Pharos 21:45, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
:It's just that I've never seen the American flag with the stars at the top right before. Didn't know you could do that! --User:Rebroad 15:56, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Yes, this is actually the standard depiction of the flag when pictured on two sides of a moving object. The left-hand side will have a 'correct' orientation, and the right hand side is reversed. This gives an impression of a flag flying away from the direction of motion, as a real flag would. The same is done with flag shoulder patches on the uniforms of American soldiers. I imagine a similar thing is done with the flags of other countries.--User:Pharos 18:47, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
== Numbering ==
I've added a comment to the effect that the th President is actually the the person to hold the office, as Grover Cleveland is counted twice. This seems both true and relevant (although trivial). If strongly disagreed with, it can be removed. Transitional Events seems an appropriate place, but maybe there is a better.
This has been deleted from Transitional Events; maybe it is better in Other Facts? It has been deleted without comment, but I have reinstated it for the moment: is it considered incorrect, irrelevant, or misplaced?
== Splitting this page up ==
This page is too large. Do you think it would be a good idea to move the list of presidents to a separate page and link to it? - User:Mpnolan 02:26, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)
:Personally, I think the timeline, while a nice graphic, could be dropped. It seems redundant given that there is a complete list of presidents above it. User:Funnyhat 01:17, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Non-rich Presidents ==
Is anyone up to listing something about financial status of Presidents? It might be less than clear-cut, but it might also be interesting to many readers to read about how many Presidents have not been rich, or not born to rich families, or were not high-born gentlemen. User:Sivamo 02:32, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
==List of presidents==
I ''really, really, really'' think the list of Presidents should be reposted in this article. It's where people expect to find it, and for most readers it's the core of the article. User:Jengod 01:12, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)
:I made the list into a separate article because it was nominated on WP:FLC, where the general feedback was that it was only featurable as a stand-alone article. So I created Template:Presidents of the United States, which was then transcluded into both President of the United States as well as List of Presidents of the United States. However, someone subst:-ituted it into the list article, and the list article was subsequently edited. I've since nominated the template for deletion. One solution would be to withdraw that nomination and paste the changes made to List of Presidents of the United States back into Template:Presidents of the United States. On the other hand, transclusion for non-message text is generally frowned upon. I don't know what the best solution is, but what's wrong with having the list in a separate article? The POTUS article itself is quite long already. --User:MarkSweep 03:29, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
::I much prefer having the list of office holders in a separate article. I would also move the timeline into list of Presidents of the United States or its own separate article. -- User:ALoan User_talk:ALoan 10:29, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:I just removed the entire list again from this article. The reason is consistency: Someone just fixed a mistake in list of Presidents of the United States (George Clinton was also VP under Madison), which is not reflected in the present list. I think it would be a major chore to keep the two lists consistent without using templates (as I originally did, before learning that use of templates for transclusion of text is discouraged). If anyone wants to revert my deletion, please also make sure that you keep the table here consistent with the separate list article. --User:MarkSweep 14:28, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
== Cheney missing from list ==
Why are we missing Cheney from the list of presidents? He served on June 29, 2002. User:Monkeyman 15:54, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
: Because Cheney never served as president. He assumed presidential powers during a Saturday afternoon while Bush was having a medical procedure done. Not the same. He wasn't sworn in. -- User:Dpark 16:48, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:There are several similar historical instances like this one, but it doesn't change the fact that the algorithm for counting presidents is as follows: whenever someone is sworn in as president, they become president; and when that person is different from the person most recently sworn in, the presidential counter is incremented. That didn't happen in Cheney's case (and in many other cases in history), so there's nothing to see here and we can all move along. --User:MarkSweep 17:19, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:: I'm sorry to see you both dismiss this interesting bit of history so quickly. Ok, so Cheney wasn't President but he was Acting President which carries all the powers of the President. And it looks like he will be the only person to act as President and not go on to become the President. (I'm not sure where you're getting your "many other cases in history" information.) Why pass up the opportunity to include this information within the article? It makes the article more interesting and invites the reader to ask more questions. User:Monkeyman 20:02, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:: P.S. Let me clarify my intentions. I agree that Cheney should not be included on the list of presidents but I think his acting as president should be included somewhere in the article. User:Monkeyman 20:25, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:::Acting President of the United States. -- User:ALoan User_talk:ALoan 21:32, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
#REDIRECT:President of the United States
#REDIRECT: President of the United States
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
President of the United States
[[Image:USPresidentialSeal.jpg|220px|thumb|Seal of the President of the United States]] The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. Under the United States Constitution, the President is also the head of government of the Federal Government of the United States and commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces. Because of the superpower status of the United States, the American President is considered by many to be the most powerful person on Earth, and is usually one of the world's best-known public figures. During the Cold War, the President was sometimes referred to as "the leader of the free world," a phrase that is still invoked today, mostly by Americans. The United States was the first nation to create the office of President, the head of government in a republic. Today the office is widely emulated all over the world in nations with a presidential system of government. The current President of the United States is George W. Bush. == Requirements to hold office == Section One of Article Two of the United States Constitution of the U.S. Constitution establishes the requirements one must meet in order to become President. The president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States (or a citizen of the United States at the time the U.S. Constitution was adopted), be at least 35 years of age, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. The natural-born citizenship requirement has been the subject of some controversy in recent years. Some commentators argue that the clause should be repealed because it excludes qualified people based on technicalities, and fails to appreciate the contributions made by immigrants to American society. Prominent public officials that are barred from the presidency because they were not born U.S. citizens include California Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in Austria; Florida United States Senate Mel Martinez and United States Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, both born in Cuba; United States Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, born in Republic of China; United States Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, born in the United Kingdom; former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, born in Czechoslovakia; and Michigan List of Governors of Michigan Jennifer Granholm, born in British Columbia, Canada. Occasionally, constitutional amendments are proposed to remove or amend this requirement, but none have yet been successful. Under the Constitution, the President serves a four-year term. Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution (which took effect in 1951 and was first applied to Dwight D. Eisenhower starting in 1953) term limit the president to either two four-year terms or a maximum of ten years in office should he have succeeded to the Presidency previously and served less than two years completing his predecessor's term. Since then, three presidents have served two full terms: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Incumbent President George W. Bush will become the fourth at the completion of his current term in 2008. ==Presidential elections== U.S. presidential elections are held every four years. Presidents are elected indirectly, through the U.S. Electoral College. The President and the Vice President of the United States are the only two nationally elected officials in the United States. (Legislators are elected on a state-by-state basis; other executive officers and judges are appointed.) Originally, each elector voted for two people for President. The votes were tallied and the person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided that such a number was a majority of electors) became President, while the individual who was in second place became Vice President. The ratification of Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1804 changed the electoral process by directing the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice President. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes, or if no candidate receives a majority, the President and Vice President are chosen by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, respectively, as necessary. Since 1933, with the ratification of Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a newly-elected President, or a re-elected incumbent, is sworn into office on January 20 of the year following the election, an event called Inauguration Day. Although the Chief Justice of the United States usually administers the presidential oath of office, any federal judge can administer the oath — and even judges of federal district courts have fulfilled this duty in emergencies. See Sarah T. Hughes. On Inauguration Day, following the oath of office, the President customarily delivers an inaugural address which sets the tone for his administration. The modern Presidential election process begins with the U.S. presidential primarys, during which the major parties (currently the United States Democratic Partys and the United States Republican Partys) each select a nominee to unite behind; the nominee in turn selects a running mate to join him on the ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. The two major candidates then face off in the general election, usually participating in American presidential debate before Election Day (United States) and campaigning across the country to explain their views and plans to the voters. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states, through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives. [[Image:George-Washington.jpg|200px|right|thumb|George Washington, 1st President (1789-1797)]] In accordance with Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution, upon entering office, the President must take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Only presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover have chosen to affirm rather than swear. The oath is traditionally ended with, "So help me God," although for religious reasons some Presidents have said, "So help me." ==Presidential powers== ''Main article: Powers of the President of the United States'' The office of president of the United States is one of the most powerful offices of its kind in the world. The president, the United States Constitution says, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, the president presides over the executive branch of the federal government — a vast organization numbering about 4 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel. In addition, the president has important legislative and judicial powers. == Succession == The United States presidential line of succession is a detailed list of government officials to serve or act as President upon a vacancy in the office due to death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and conviction). The line of 17 begins with the Vice President of the United States and ends with the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The United States Constitution provided that, if a President were to die, resign, or be removed from office, the "powers and duties" of the office would devolve upon the Vice President of the United States, but did not specify whether the Vice President would succeed to the office of President or merely act as President. After the death of William Henry Harrison, however, Vice President John Tyler asserted that he had become the President, not merely Acting President, and this precedent was followed in all subsequent cases. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution eliminated this ambiguity by confirming the Vice President as first in the order as well as spelling out a process for him to serve as Acting President of the United States should the President become disabled. A provision of the United States Code () establishes the rest of the succession line. To date no officer other than the Vice President of the United States has been called upon to act as President. == Office-holders == For a list of persons who served as the President of the United States following the ratification of the United States Constitution see the list of Presidents of the United States. (For leaders prior to this ratification, see President of the Continental Congress.) == Timeline == * Martin Van Buren, born December 5, 1782, was the first president born after the United States Declaration of Independence and was thus arguably the first president who was not born a British subject. Interestingly, he is also the first president not of British descent. * John Tyler, born March 29, 1790, was the first president born after the adoption of the United States Constitution, all presidents born before him were eligible to be president because they were citizens at the time the Constitution was adopted, not because they were natural born citizens. (Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, before the Constitution was adopted). * Franklin Pierce, born November 23, 1804, was the first president born in the 19th century. Millard Fillmore was born January 7 1800; however, 1801 marked the first year of the 19th century, not 1800. * Warren Harding, born November 2 1865, was the first president born after the American Civil War. Lee surrendered 9 April 1865. * John F. Kennedy, born May 29, 1917, was the first president born in the 20th century. ** Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, was born on August 27 1908. Three other Presidents who followed Johnson in office were also born before Kennedy (in order of birth, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford). * Jimmy Carter, born October 1 1924, was the first president born after World War I. ** George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Carter's successor, was born on June 12, 1924. * Bill Clinton, born August 19 1946, was the first president born after World War II. ** Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, was born July 6 1946. ==Graphical timeline== == Former Presidents == After a president of the U.S. leaves office, the title "President" continues to be applied to that person the rest of his life. Former presidents continue to be important national figures, and in some cases go on to successful post-presidential careers. Notable examples have included William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Jimmy Carter's current career as a global human rights campaigner and best-selling writer. Andrew Johnson was elected to the same Senate that tried his impeachment after his term was over. [[image:pres38-42.jpg|thumb|250px|Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and their wives at the funeral of President Richard Nixon on 27 April 1994.]] As of 2005, there are four living former presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The most recently deceased President is Ronald Reagan, who died in June 2004. There have never been more than five former presidents alive at any given time in American history. There have been three periods during which five former presidents were alive: *From March 4, 1861, to January 18, 1862, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan were living (during the Abraham Lincoln, until the death of Tyler). *From January 20, 1993, to April 22, 1994, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush were living (during the Bill Clinton, until the death of Nixon). *From January 20, 2001, to June 5, 2004, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were living (during the George W. Bush, until the death of Reagan). There have been six periods in American history during which no former presidents were alive: *April 30, 1789 - March 4, 1797: The trivial case of George Washington, the first president. *December 14, 1799 - March 4, 1801: from the death of former President George Washington until incumbent President John Adams left office (no former president would die until Adams and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, both did so on July 4 1826). *July 31, 1875 - March 4, 1877: from the death of former President Andrew Johnson until incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant left office (no former president would die until Grant did so in 1885 although incumbent President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881). *June 24, 1908 - March 4, 1909: from the death of former President Grover Cleveland until incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt left office (no former president would die until Roosevelt did so in 1919). *January 5, 1933 - March 4, 1933: from the death of former President Calvin Coolidge until incumbent President Herbert Hoover left office (no former president would die until Hoover did so in 1964 although incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office in 1945 and incumbent President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963). *January 22, 1973 - August 9, 1974: from the death of former President Lyndon Johnson until incumbent President Richard Nixon resigned (no former president would die until Nixon did so in 1994). Herbert Hoover had the longest post-presidency, 31 years. He left office in 1933 and died in 1964. James K. Polk had the shortest post-presidency. He died on June 15, 1849, a mere three months after the expiration of his term. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only President to serve more than 8 years in the office (1933-1945). Prior to his administration, presidents chose to follow the example set by George Washington to limit their tenure to two terms or less. Following the passage of the Amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Twenty-second_Amendment_.281951.29 in 1951, however, a two-term limit became the law. Between the birth of George Washington in 1732 and the birth of Bill Clinton in 1946, future presidents have been born in every decade except two: the 1810s and the 1930s. Between the death of George Washington in 1799 and the present, presidents or ex-presidents have died in every decade except four: the 1800s, 1810s, 1950s, and 1980s. == Presidential salary and benefits == {| border=1 align=right cellpadding=2 cellspacing=1 style="margin-left:0.5em; border-collapse:collapse;" |+ Presidential Pay History |- bgcolor="#efefef" ! Date established !! Salary |- | September 24, 1789 ||align=right| $25,000 |- | March 3, 1873 ||align=right| $50,000 |- | March 4, 1909 ||align=right| $75,000 |- | January 19, 1949 || $100,000 |- | January 20, 1969 || $200,000 |- | January 20, 2001 || $400,000 |} The First United States Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year — a significant sum in 1789. Washington, already a successful man, refused to accept his salary. Since 2001, the President has earned a salary of $400,000 a year. Traditionally, the President, as the most important official in the government of the United States, is the highest-paid government employee. Consequently, the President's salary serves as a cap of sorts for all other federal officials, such as the Chief Justice of the United States. The raise for 2001 was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 because other officials who receive annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching the President's. Consequently, in order to raise the salaries of the other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised as well. Modern Presidents enjoy many non-salary benefits such as living and working in the spacious White House mansion in Washington, DC. While traveling, the President is able to conduct all the functions of the office aboard several specially-built Boeing 747s, which take the call sign Air Force One when the President is aboard. The President travels around Washington in an armored Cadillac (automobile) limousine, equipped with bullet-proof windows and tires and a self-contained ventilation system in the event of a biological or chemical attack. When traveling longer distances around the Washington area or on presidential trips, the President travels aboard the presidential helicopter, which takes the call sign Marine One when the president is aboard. Additionally, the President has full use of Camp David in Maryland, a sprawling retreat occasionally used as a casual setting for hosting foreign dignitaries. The President and his family are protected at all times by an extensive United States Secret Service detail. Until 1997, all former Presidents and their families were protected by the Secret Service until the President's death. The last President to have lifetime Secret Service protection is Bill Clinton; George W. Bush and all subsequent Presidents will be protected by the Secret Service for a maximum of 10 years after leaving office. Presidents continue to enjoy other benefits after leaving office such as free mailing privileges, free office space, the right to hold a passport and budgets for office help and staff assistance. However, it was not until after Harry S. Truman (1958) that Presidents received a pension after they left office. Additionally, since the presidency of Herbert Hoover, Presidents receive funding from the National Archives and Records Administration upon leaving office to establish their own presidential library. These are not traditional libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials for each President since Herbert Hoover. The President has the use of: *Air Force One *Army One *Coast Guard One *Executive One *Marine One *Navy One ==Presidential residences== The President's principal workplace and official residence is the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC (northwest) in Washington, DC. His official vacation or weekend residence is Camp David in Maryland. Many Presidents have also had their List of U.S. Presidential residences. ==Presidential facts== ===Transition events=== *Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated while in office: **Abraham Lincoln in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth **James Garfield in 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau (Guiteau shot him but Garfield arguably died due to subsequent incorrect medical care) **William McKinley in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz **John F. Kennedy in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/warren_commission/warren_commission_report_chapter1.html] although many theories suggest additional gunmen. [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/house_select_committee/committee_report_gunmen.html] *Four others died in office of natural causes: **William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841 **Zachary Taylor, died of "acute indigestion" in 1850 **Warren G. Harding, died of heart attack in 1923 **Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1945 *One President resigned from office: **Richard Nixon in 1974 *Two Presidents have been impeachment, though neither was subsequently convicted: **Andrew Johnson in 1868 **Bill Clinton in 1999 *Four Presidents have been elected without a plurality of popular votes: **John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1824 ***However, in six of the then twenty-four states in 1824, the electors were chosen by the state legislature, with no popular vote. **Rutherford B. Hayes - trailed Samuel J. Tilden by 264,292 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1876 **Benjamin Harrison - trailed Grover Cleveland 95,713 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1888 **George W. Bush - trailed Al Gore by 540,520 votes in the U.S. presidential election, 2000 *Eleven Presidents have been elected fourteen times without a majority of popular votes (but with a plurality of popular votes): **James K. Polk - 49.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1844 **Zachary Taylor - 47.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1848 **James Buchanan - 45.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1856 **Abraham Lincoln - 39.9% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1860 **James A. Garfield - 48.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1880 **Grover Cleveland - 48.8% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1884 **Grover Cleveland - 46.0% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1892 **Woodrow Wilson - 41.8% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1912 **Woodrow Wilson - 49.3% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1916 **Harry S. Truman - 49.7% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1948 **John F. Kennedy - 49.7% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1960 **Richard Nixon - 43.2% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1968 **Bill Clinton - 42.9% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1992 **Bill Clinton - 49.2% of the popular vote in the U.S. presidential election, 1996 *Two Presidents have been elected without a majority of electoral votes, and were chosen by the House of Representatives: **Thomas Jefferson - finished with same number of electoral votes as Aaron Burr in the U.S. presidential election, 1800 **John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 15 electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election, 1824 *Eight Presidents took office without being elected to the Presidency, having been elected as Vice Presidents and then promoted from that position: ** Four of them did not run to succeed themselves, and were never elected president. ***John Tyler - Assumed the Presidency on the death of William Henry Harrison, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1844 ***Millard Fillmore - Succeeded Zachary Taylor, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1852 ***Andrew Johnson - Succeeded Abraham Lincoln, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1868 ***Chester A. Arthur - Succeeded James Garfield, did not run in the U.S. presidential election, 1884 ** The other four later ran for president, and were elected to succeed themselves as president: ***Theodore Roosevelt - Succeeded William McKinley, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1904 ***Calvin Coolidge - Succeeded Warren G. Harding, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1924 ***Harry S. Truman - Succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1948, but did not run again in the U.S. presidential election, 1952, despite being eligible for a third term. ***Lyndon B. Johnson - Succeeded John F. Kennedy, elected to succeed himself as president in the U.S. presidential election, 1964, but did not run again in the U.S. presidential election, 1968 *One President, Gerald Ford, was never elected but was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon (with approval from Congress) upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, succeeded to the Presidency after Nixon's resignation, and was defeated in the U.S. presidential election, 1976 by Jimmy Carter. He remains the only President neither elected as President nor as Vice President. *Four Presidents had never held any prior elected office: **Zachary Taylor **Ulysses S. Grant **Herbert Hoover **Dwight D. Eisenhower *An urban legend claims that David Rice Atchison was the 11 1/2 president of the United States for one day on March 4, 1849 in between the terms of James K. Polk (whose term expired at noon on 4 March) and Zachary Taylor (who chose not to be sworn in until 5 March). However, the logic of this is contradictory. If one does not consider Taylor to have officially become President until the administration of his Oath of Office, then the same logic precludes any person from having automatically succeeded before likewise having taken the same Oath. In fact, Taylor, as President-elect, automatically acceded to the Office of President upon the expiration of Polk's term, even if he did not yet enter into the execution of that Office until the Oath was administered. This fact was confirmed by Congress when it certified his election, as it defined the beginning of the administration as the instant Polk left office. Even if supposing, for the sake of argument, the rather odd interpretation that only Presidents-elect are required to take the Oath before officially occupying the Office, whilst officials in the Presidential Line of Succession occupy the Presidency ipso facto, then there would be a long list of dozens of additional "Presidents" who only held the office for a matter of hours or minutes. *Stephen Grover Cleveland had two non-consecutive terms as President, and is counted both as the 22nd and the 24th President, as can be confirmed from the list above. Consequently, all subsequent Presidents who are referred to as "the
President of the United States
== Bush in office until 2009? == I have removed a reference to Bush leaving office in 2009. I do not believe that anyone can forsee the next four years. Although it is likely that he will serve a full second term, the possibility still exists that he may leave office by resignation, impeachment and removal, physical incapacity, etc. Since Wikipedia is supposed to report facts only, shouldn't it be listed that Bush's presidency is until "present"? User:Jwinters : I agree wholeheartedly with this - Wikipedia is not a political platform - it's an encyclopedia ; at the moment, we should simply be stating that Bush is still in office. I have put this page on my watch list and shall continue to revert any reference to 2009 back to "In Office" ; this is the way the table presents data for the List of British Prime Ministers - this page should be no different. -- User:Zaphod Beeblebrox 17:00, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) That is nonsensical. The standard way to deal with this is to state that his term will run until 2009. That leaves open the possibility that the term may be aborted due to death, resignation or removal from office. It is fundamentally wrong to state simply that someone is 'in office' as that blurs two distinct categories of people - those like presidents elected for specific terms, and those like the UK PM who once s/he ''kisses hands'' (ie., are appointed) remain continually in office until they resign or die. (The holding of general elections is of no consequence in so far as parliament does not elect the PM, let alone elect them after each general election. They continue on automatically until they resign, die or are dismissed.) Bush is not in that situation. He has a definite cut off point, January 2009, so that needs to be made clear, just as it needs to be made clear that Blair if he chooses and he does not lose a general election, could be in power well beyond 2009. (In theory he could be there in 2019 or even 2029, whereas Bush cannot be there after January 2009. That's the difference). User:Jtdirl 17:45, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) :That is nonsensical : the column on the table is labelled "Left Office" ; past tense. How can you label a column in the table with a date in the future if it's meant to designate an occasion that occured in the past? -- User:Zaphod Beeblebrox 17:58, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Saying that Bush "left office" in 2009 is as nonsensical as saying that Bush, then Gore, then Bush won Florida in 2000. If the timeline says "present" under "left office", and Bush leaves office early, the timeline would only be out-of-date. If the timeline says "2009" under "left office", and Bush leaves office early, the timeline would be inaccurate. I'm trying to prevent the possibility of an inaccuracy. The whole point is to report what is, or what has happened, not what is likely to happen. The fact that he cannot serve past 2009 can br inferred from the rest of the article (1 - Bush took office in 2001, 2 - He can only be elected to a maximum of 2 four-year terms). User:Jwinters 19:47, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC) == Featured article status and miscellaneous objections == ''This was once a Wikipedia:Featured articles.'' See Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#President_of_the_United_States to learn what needs to be done to re-establish this article's status. :It isn't there anymore. I finally found it but since it took so long I will copy the debate here: Article should make more prominent mention of how presidents get their position in the first place (preferably at the beginning and nicely integrated with the flow of the text). Currently we have to make do with obscure links at the end to U.S. presidential election and U.S. Electoral College. -- Dissident 04:44, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) Done. jengod 01:34, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) This objection seems to have been addressed. What's the procedure for re-listing the article? Can anyone just add it back if there are no further objections? --Minesweeper 22:27, Mar 19, 2004 (UTC) I beg to make an objection (or rather, objections). Firstly, the Article does not seem to mention that the term limit does not apply in the case of terms lasting less than two years. Furthermore, it does not note that the term limits are relevant in the case of elections; an individual who has previously served two terms may suceed to the Presidency in the case of a vacancy. Secondly, the Article misrepresents the facts relating to the Twelfth Amendment. It states, "Since the ratification of Amendment XII in 1804 clarified the electoral process, the President and Vice President have been elected together as a ticket through the constitutionally mandated U.S. Electoral College." After the ratification of the Amendment, despite the statement in the article to the contrary, the President and Vice President are elected separately - not as a joint ticket. Thirdly, the article states, "The winning candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes." I object because the article does not state that a winning candidate can win in the House of Representatives if there is no majority in the Electoral College. Fourthly, I object to the structure of a sentence: " Thus, in order to raise the salaries of other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised to avoid surpassing the President." It would seem, reading the sentence, that the President's salary was surpassing his own, and therefore had to be raised - which of course does not appear logical. -- Emsworth 03:33, Mar 20, 2004 (UTC) ---- [unsigned qn by User:Mullickprashant moved from near top to bottom, where it is morelikely to be read & answered. --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 02:39, 2004 May 15 (UTC)~] == Form of address for presidents == I have an OLD book here (can't seem to locate a date on it) that says one of the "official" ways to refer to the President is "His Excellency, The President of the United States." I may be American (and proud!) but I'm not calling any president "His Excellency," that's just too much for me. :I asked a question about this before in a different forum after having seen an original death announcement for Lincoln, which referred to him as His Excellency. It seems that some effusive people, unaware that the president has no such title, would refer to him as Excellency. From time to time, some people from other parts of the world will address the president as Your Excellency (in letters and suchlike). Of course, this has never been formal usage (although for a while, they did consider whether the president should have some title, such as "Elective Majesty".) - user:Montrealais ''His Excellency'' is actually not a title but a Style - Manner of Address, ie a formal manner of address. There is no written Style for the US president but there is a spoken one, '' 'Mr. President' '', which is the same as 'Your Majesty' (UK), 'President' (Ireland), 'Your Holiness' (Holy See). 'Excellency' is a standard style applied to heads of state in republics. It may have been that one was introduced once and then dropped, or people just presumed like everyone else that the US president was addressed that way. If you get an invitation to the White House to meet some visiting head of state, the WH Protocol people will tell you to address them by their appropiate Style. User:Jtdirl 08:17 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC) ** Under the Congress of Vienna and generally recognnized forms of address, ANY head of state carries the title of "excellency" as well as the head of government (e.i. prime minister, premier, etc.) in some non English speaking monarchies. The fact that American protocol does not officially reserve "excellency" to the president does not mean he or she can not be address as such without breaking American social etiquette. It is a title of courtesy (which means it is not official or required. The style "excellency" is also an appropriate courtesy title when addressing state governors and several states have officially reserved the style to the governor including Massachusetts and Vermont. The Congress of Vienna also reserves "excellency" for ambassadors and other high ranking diplomats, this title is NOT accredited to the ambassador by his or her government but by the government and people of the host nation in which the ambassador is stationed in. Officially American protocol is to address any ambassador or high ranking diplomat (e.g. foreign minister, European Union head of delegation, Secretary General of U.N., etc.)as "excellency. As for not addressing a president etc. as "excellency" remember that it goes with the office not the person. You are honouring the highest office in the land or showing respect for an elected official by addressing him or her as "excellency." ---- Sorry for the poor formatting; I got the list from http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/. Looks like they've got more info, and I'd bet that info is in the public domain and therefore copyable? ---- An important question. Could you research this and report back? ---- The info at that site seems to come from copyrighted sources. information here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/copyright.html I can find no link between that address and http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/, however they are in the same folder and clearly contain information on the same subjects mentioned in the book on the U.S. presidents. The info above may fall under the :Feist v. Rural decision, i.e. that factual information, even in collections, in many instances is not copyrightable. I guess the question would be whether any of the "expressive" content of the author is present here; you should probably ask User::Lee Daniel Crocker, as it seems to be an area he's knowledgeable in. ''The actual text of the biographies there is indeed copyrighted by the WHHA, a non-governmental entity that is entitled to own copyrights, and so you can't copy any of that text. Simple factual information like where a president was born, what other offices he may have held, the names of his family members, etc. can certainly be learned from that site and written up here in your own words. There is no "creative selection" or "creative presentation" problem because we're including every president, in natural order, and presenting the information in our own way. Copyrights apply to "creativity", not "research". --LDC'' ==Andrew Johnson's party == Is Andrew Johnson considered a Republican? :Johnson's political allegiance was complex. - User:Calmypal 22:59, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC) :The Republican party made a shrewd political move when they brought a Democrat in as Vice-President to Lincoln. That didn't change Johnson's party affiliation, though, nor his ideals (as is clear from the later struggles between the Republicans and President Johnson). Although he ran on a Republican ticket, he remained a Democrat. Most histories ([http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/aj17.html], [http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumber=17], [http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ajohnson.html] for example) list him as a Democrat. User:SWAdair | User talk:SWAdair 07:42, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) ::Is there a reason why he's given the republican colour in the timeline table? And shouldn't John Tyler be treated the same way - also a Democrat VP elected on Whig ticket who then succeeds and falls out with his nominating party. ::Would it help to have another colour for such Presidents to distinguish them from those elected onb that party's ticket? User:Timrollpickering 20:13, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC) Johnson should be a listed as something like independant. He was a unionist in 1864 and when he ran with Lincoln it was a republican ticket. Due to the fact that it is complex we should make it independant. == Presidents under the Articles of Conf.? == So, it seems to me that it would be nice for this list to be in chronological order. That would require the presidents under the Articles to come before the presidents under the Constitution. Does anyone have any objections? -- EdwardOConnor :Well, since those guys weren't really Presidents of the United States (under the most common interpretation of what it means to really be the President of the United States), it makes sense to have them listed as they are, in a side-note. Perhaps they should even be moved to a separate page. --User::Jimbo Wales ::I guess I don't understand the common interpretation then. What it not the United States that won indepenence from Britain? It seems strange to think that it came about upon ratification of the Constitution, many years later. Mere anarchy was not loosed upon the land in the interim. (Note that it would be correct to say that I'm attacking a strawman here. :]) It seems to me that any reasonable interpretation of the phrase "president of the United States of America" has to take into account that both American governments have had such a position. Would it be correct to not list Arthur Griffith before Eamon de Valera on a hypothetical "Presidents of Ireland" page, merely because he was not president under the current Constitution? -- EdwardOConnor :::Actually it would. :::# Griffith wasn't President of Ireland, his title was President of Dáil Éireann, and deV would ''still'' go ahead of him because deV was his immediate predecessor in that office, though from August 22, 1921 to Griffith's election, it has been called President of the Irish Republic. :::# The 'Irish Republic' Griffith was president over was a different state, with a different name, covering a different land-mass. So Griffith was not President of Ireland, the head of state of the Republic of Ireland, he was Arthur Griffith, President of Dáil Éireann of the Irish Republic. User:Jtdirl 08:17 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC) :::The "presidents" under the Articles of Confederation were not the chief executives of the United States. They were the presiding officers of the Congress; the better analogy under the Constitution is to the Speaker of the House (or to the ''President'' pro tempore of the Senate). In other words, we do not list Presidents of the United States before George Washington because there were none, only Presidents of the Congress. User:Mateo SA 05:24, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) :Perhaps keep them in a separate list, but put that separate list before the "traditional" president listing? Aitchison was ''really'' briefly the President, so he should probably stay on this page no matter what ultimately happens to the others. ::This sounds reasonable to me. -- EdwardOConnor == Presidents' religious affiliations == Why are religious affiliations on the main list page? On a president's own page, sure, but on the main page? Party affiliation makes sense, but here, religion is no more relevant than shoe size, IMO. -- User::RjLesch :Agreed. -- EdwardOConnor :Religious affiliation is indeed more relevant than shoe size or boxers or briefs (:MTV viewers' voting criteria notwithstanding :-). One's religion can give insight into one's philosophy, worldview, etc. As for why I added them -- I did it because I happened to have collected the list out of an almanac several years ago. ''<>< User::tbc'' I think this claim needs to be shown, not merely told. I'd be interested to see an explanation of how Nixon's Quakerism influenced his decision to bomb Cambodia, for example. But until then, I think religious affiliation should be removed or moved somewhere else. - Tim :
== Timeline section == User:SNIyer1 made some changes to the Timeline section. I basically reverted his changes, then added some information to clarify the issue: * For example, before SNIyer1's edits, one line said: ** John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century. * SNIyer1 changed this to: ** Lyndon Johnson was the first president born in the 20th century, even though John F. Kennedy was the first 20th century born president. * What SNIyer1 was trying to point out was that LBJ was actually born before Kennedy. However, the first listing is more accurate. This can be seen if you add some implied words to the line: ** John F. Kennedy was the first ''person to become'' president ''who was'' born in the 20th century. User:Mateo SA 00:53, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC) == Problem: == The page contains the following vandalism: Matt S 0wnz0rs j00 4ll. I was unable to edit it out. == Title for former Presidents == I seem to remember reading (somewhere!) that once a President leaves office, he (or she) is ''not'' allowed the title 'President' but instead reverts to the highest title he (or she) previously held - thus Bill Clinton is today Governor Clinton, and not President (or Ex-President) Clinton. If I am not mistaken, General George Washington specifically requested this, as it is the norm for all other official positions that the person who held them may use the title after they finish serving - could someone please confirm it? I am trying to find my source but I simply do not remember where (or for that matter when) I read it. Thanks, User:Minhnd 13:44, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) *According to some branch of the government (http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/politics/pres/oldpres.htm), when writing to former Presidents one should use 'The Honourable (President's name)'... does that imply that they should not be called 'President (name)'? User:Minhnd 13:51, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) * Ah-ha! I've found it... though I'm not sure as a source its ''entirely'' reliable... would you trust the [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A8709-2000Oct25¬Found=true Washington Post's Etiquette Maverick]? User:Minhnd 14:12, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC) :I don't know what the precise rule is, but I've never heard Clinton referred to as "Governor Clinton" since he left office in 2001. "Former President Clinton" is the standard in the media. I'm not sure what he is called directly -- in office, it's "Mr. President;" not sure how you address a former president. User:Funnyhat 01:15, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) :CNN uses the "Former President Whoever" style. e.g. [http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/03/10/clinton.surgery/], [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/05/reagan.health/]. Reverting to a previous title is just silly, since they no longer hold that title, either. -- User:Dpark 01:27, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::They are almost invariably called ''President
President of the united States
#REDIRECT:President of the United States
President of the united states
#REDIRECT: President of the United States
See other meanings of words starting from letter: