(Presidential Song)
The president of the United States, it's the most serious
and important office in all the land.
And if movies have taught us anything
he is the guy who has to get in the jet when aliens invade.
Sound Awesome!?!? It Is!!
And we are going to tell you all you need to know to get sworn in,
cause this, is EPIC HOW TO.
The constitution lays out three requirements to become president,
1.You must be a naturally born US Citizen, you can be born abroad but at least
one of your parents must be a US citizen.
So, Arnold Schwarzenegger is OUT!!
2.You have to be at least 35 yrs old,because rules....
3.You have to have lived in the US for at least 14 years.
To become president you have to win the electoral college,
which is 538 electors who vote on who should become president.
That's one for each of our 435 representatives and 100 senators
plus 3 electors from the District of Columbia.
How do we get these electors??
Well, each political party or independent candidates send us a list of electors to each state
that will vote on that party's candidate.
Then the candidate that wins the stake gets to have their electors vote for them.
So yes, you don't actually get to vote for the president,
your voting for the people to vote for the president,
and in 24 states the electors aren't legally required to vote for their parties candidate.
They can call an audible and completely disregard your vote,
whyyyy? Well the founding fathers wanted the states to have the power to elect the president,
not the people, which means the candidate with the highest total votes doesn't necessarily win.
Lemme take you back ,this happened in 2000
when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college to George W.
BUSH.
Ok, so you've met the requirements to know how the election works,
now you have to register as a candidate.
According to federal law any one who plans to spend or raise more than $5,000
on or for their campaign must register with the Federal Election Commission,
and guess what buckerooo, you're gonna need a lot more than $5,000.
President Obama and the democrats spent nearly a billion dollars on the 2012
election.
Next, you have to get your name on the ballot in all 50 states,
and to get on the ballot you need signatures,
lots of them!
Though the exact no varies from state to state.
In California you need a 160000 signatures to get on the ballot,
in Minnesota by contrast you only need 2000 signatures.
Try as you might to become a president as a independent.
The only possible person to have done that is... guesses?
What's like the only president's name who you really know?
That's right George Washington,
and you and George Washington, obviously.
So you are going to need to win the election nomination of either the democrats or the republicans
cause our systems f*****.
Even if you could raise the cash to compete with the democrats and the republicans
you won't have the organized infrastructure of the big 2.
According to the ballot access expert Lauren Oliver,
the lack of organization is the #1 reason independent candidates lose.
And even if you manage to build a highly efficient campaign
team, you are likely to scare the parties enough
that they will sue you to keep you off the ballot.
That's what happened to Ralph Nader in 2004,
when democrats sued to try to keep him off the ballots in Iowa
and other states.
Though they were unsuccessful,
it's scary how far the big parties are gonna go
to crush their competition.
To get nominated by major political partie you need,
to win the majority of the each states caucus or primary election.
Yes, there is another election that gets you to
the election.
American democracy is weird.
It used to be the 2 parties chose their nominees
in smoky backrooms through good old fashioned inn fighting,
and wheeling and dealing.
Now a days the primaries and caucuses accomplish the same thing
with a lot less smoke,
way more b******t.
The primary elections work in a similar fashion to the
presidential election,
where voters are determining who the state delegates should nominate.
A caucus is like a primary but run by the party,
and not the state.
The key primaries and caucuses to win are in Iowa and
New Hampshire those are the first caucus and primary to
happen and having a good showing dramatically increases
your chance of winning the nomination.
Therefore, you need to start campaigning in those states early.
The republicans started in Iowa for the 2012 election in may of 2009,
so you better go shake hands and kiss some babies
because do well here will get you tons of positive
media coverage.
Now it's one thing to be
nominated, it's another thing entirely
to win, first things first you need to
be presidential, according to university of Missouri political scientists
John Patrosik
Americans want a president who can solve problems and make decisions
duh, they also want someone who is honest.
After the bay of pigs disaster president Kennedy went on to TV
and declared he had failed and solely deserved the blame.
His approval ratings skyrocketed to 83%.
Now you might think you need to be a Washington insider
to have any hope of becoming president but,
in the 2014 study 30% of people polled to be less likely to support a candidate
with years of Washington experience.
What matters even more is military experience,
43% of people polled would be more likely to vote
for someone who served in the armed forces.
But, don't fret if you never enlisted 85% of people vote
for their party's candidate cause we're sheep.
That means that you are really trying to win over the last 15%,
which is why most candidates adopt middle of the road policies
at least during the campaign.
If you are going to be president then you need to make sure you
some capture some key swing states,
it's not a sex party thing but it could be.
Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina
will be key capturing your victory.
So, make sure you push hard there.
You also need to look presidential.
You know the old saying, dress for the job you want,
well since the job you want is the president of the United States
you need to dress pretty fricking incredibly.
According to style experts Sylvi Deglisto
the president wardrobe needs to command respect.
Which means a lot of dark grey and blue suits,
but you can't wear the same thing all the time,
cause that makes you look too rigid
and inflexible.
This may sound frivolous but the 1960 election came down to the final debate.
People listening on the radio thought
Richard Nixon won the debate but, people watching on TV thought
the better looking and better dressed, John F. Kennedy won the debate,
and he went on to win the election that year.
I dunno what happen to the Nixon guy.
Congratulations you are president now
the oval office, the secret service, and the big red button are yours.
Be sure to thank us in the State of the Union address.
As always, I'm Joe Berreta and this is been Epic How To.
hey guys click here to check out all the epicness or click here to see other great awe me shows,
and before you go we would like to thank
Gillette for sponsoring this episode,click that link down below
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