Surprisingly, party allegiance is not generally considered to be one of the most intrinsically important ingredients of each Presidential administration. This is because the party orientation of individual Presidents tends to play a less vital role when compared to the other factors that comprise administrations – namely, each President’s personality, the powers and roles granted to the President by the Constitution, and the makeup of the underlying governmental bureaucracy. Taken together, these four ingredients overwhelmingly put together the institution of the Presidency, regardless of party allegiance, political era, or historical time period.

Initially the government of the United States was simple and the line of succession began with the Vice President and then the Senate and House of Representatives and the President's Cabinet. As time went on and more cabinet positions were added to meet the needs of a growing country and government, the line of succession was adjusted to include all cabinet members.

The Constitution’s list of criterion for presidential eligibility is relatively simple and sparse: any potential president must be at least thirty-five years of age, must have lived in the US for at least fourteen years, and must be a natural-born citizen. No prior governmental service is required – theoretically, anyone is eligible to hold the nation’s highest office without having first obtained any political experience at all. Recently, there has been some debate as to the exact meaning of the “natural-born citizen” clause. The Constitution does not elaborate as to what circumstances constitute “natural-born” citizenship and so a key question remains: Can a naturalized citizen, who meets all the other requirements, become President? As of yet, this issue is unresolved, mainly because the Supreme Court has yet to show much interest, but it is not inconceivable to think that this may be the next of the Constitution’s clauses to soon face judicial clarification.

This should have been a relatively simple question. The Presidency is the most constitutionally limited office in the US. In other words, the constitution imposes greater eligibility requirements on the office of the President than on any other office in the country. In more concrete terms, the President must have been born a US citizen (there is some debate over “natural born”—but that’s mostly beyond the scope of this course) which means that a nationalized immigrant cannot EVER be president. This stands in stark contrast to the House and Senate which simply impose various temporal restrictions on nationalization (e.g. must have been a citizen for 7 years). Beyond that, the President must be 35—the highest specified age in the Constitution, and he must have been a resident of the US for 14 years (i.e. he cannot have been born a US citizen, then gallivanted off to France for his entire life, return, and seek the office).

Created in 1947 by the National Security Act, the NSC advises the president on issues related to national security and coordinates information between the different branches of the military and the CIA.

Contrary to popular belief, the President is not, in fact, authorized to declare war. Under the Constitution, ONLY Congress has the power to declare war; the President is instructed to go before Congress and present their case for military involvement, with the final decision left up to both the House and Senate. However, the issue of war powers – and specifically the extent of the President’s permitted exercise of them – is perhaps one of the most contentious modern political controversies. In the last several decades, a new trend has begun to emerge, in which Presidents increasingly insert temporary deployments of troops and other forms of military assistance into foreign conflicts, all without obtaining prior Congressional approval. Informed of the nation’s military actions only once these commitments had been made, Congress has usually chosen to sanction the President’s decisions after the fact – notable examples include the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and several sectors of the ongoing War on Terror. Congress did attempt to take back some of its control with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which would have held the President to much stricter rules on activating the army and making military commitments. But every President who has held office since the law’s passage has chosen to simply ignore it – a fact which Congress has yet to effectively challenge.

This is a trick question, and a sneaky one at that. The President does not declare war: Congress does. That bears repeating: only Congress can declare war. Thus, the answer is zero, although, technically speaking, we have been in one war since WWI—and that would be WWII. At this point you’re probably asking “but what about Vietnam? Korea? The Gulf War??!” Those are all valid objections, but they are not valid wars. Congress MUST declare war in order for the US to go to war. Otherwise, they are characterized as “armed conflicts” or something similar. They may be referred to as wars colloquially, but they are not formally declared.

The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 established that in the event that neither the President nor Vice-President are able to carry out the duties of the President, then the office should fall to the Speaker of the House, followed by the President pro tempore of the Senate, and then the Secretary of State. At various times in American history, the line of Presidential succession has been changed to reflect the realities and political interests of leading politicians at the time; however, there has yet to be an instance where the office has needed to pass beyond the Vice-President.

The Speaker of the House is next in line if something should happen the president and vice president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 placed the Speaker of the House and Senate President Pro-Tempore back in the line after they were removed from it many years earlier. President Truman pushed heavily for this after President Roosevelt died in office and wanted to ensure that the president could not appoint all of those in the line of succession, as the only other people in it are cabinet members that were chosen by the president. Truman wanted the Speaker to be first because he believed that the House would be closer to the presidency than the Senate because its members are elected every two years and therefore would be in line with the wants of the people.

The Constitution does make mention of the Vice President, although s/he is not officially entrusted with much power. According to the Constitution, the Vice President’s sole responsibilities are to preside over the Senate and to cast the deciding vote in the event of a Senate-wide tie (both tasks are seldom ever carried out). Curiously, the Constitution contains no provisions concerning the White House staffers, the members of the President’s Cabinet, or the First Lady. George Washington is credited with inventing the Cabinet, a team of confidential advisors chosen by the President, the legality of whose appointments are traditionally determined by the Senate. The White House staffers operate under similar conditions – while not mentioned in the Constitution, an office as prestigious as the Executive Branch could hardly be expected to function effectively without a staff. Many of these aides are personally selected by the President and assist him in a wide variety of necessary tasks, from conducting legislative research to serving as liaisons to various Congressional and military departments. As for the First Lady, while the Constitution neglects to mention her, historically Presidents’ wives have occupied a special role within the government hierarchy. Often, the First Lady serves as her husband’s more accessible representative, making numerous public appearances and championing a wide range of causes to promote the common good.