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hi i'm craig and this is crash course
government and politics and today we're
going to talk about the most powerful
person in the u.s
no not chris hemsworth although he is
powerful in a physical sense we're
talking about the president of the u.s
who right now is barack obama but that's
the last we'll mention him specifically
instead we'll examine the office of the
presidency and what makes whoever holds
the office so
powerful we're also going to talk about
what makes him and so far the president
has always been on him
less powerful than you might think
so you might have noticed a trend in
these episodes that we like to start
with what the constitution says about
the branches of government that's not
just because it's what appears on tests
or what strict constructionist justice
scalia would want us to do we start with
the constitution because it gives us a
formal description of the branch in this
case the executive upon which we can
build what do you mean upon which we can
build that's nonsense the constitution
is a limited document it lays the
framework in the rules and that's all
all this extra stuff is an
unconstitutional power grab
oh clone from the right i was wondering
what happened to you clowns
that's a good point you make but really
the world is more complicated than it
was in 1787 and we need to have a more
flexible government
the constitution provides a framework
for understanding it but it needs to
change with the times besides
if the president becomes more powerful
than what's suggested in the
constitution whose fault is that
congress that's who okay clones we get
the picture there's a debate about the
role of the constitution in setting up
the government and we're not going to
solve it today
for now we're going to start with the
constitution and what it says about the
president
you win this round clone from the right
all right let's try to keep those convos
in the clone zone going forward thank
you
anyway as with congress the constitution
lays out certain qualifications for the
presidency
if you want to be president of the u.s
and i know you do you must be 35 years
old which in the 1780s was actually
pretty old you were expected to have
moved out of your parents house by that
point and you must be a citizen of the
u.s who was born in the united states or
one of its territories the president
is not elected directly by the american
people yeah your mind is blown in the
constitution as originally written only
members of the house of representatives
were directly elected by qualified
citizens the president is actually
chosen by the electoral college which is
complicated and frustrating for many
americans and we're not going to go into
it now
except to say that the reason it exists
is that the framers didn't trust the
popular vote all that much
so they built in the electoral college
as a safeguard against the people
electing scary demagogues or
the person they wanted elected some
people say that this is not particularly
democratic mostly because it's not
particularly democratic so
democratically elected or not the
president is pretty powerful but he has
different categories of powers what are
they first he has military powers to
send soldiers in planes and ships to do
military things
he also has judicial powers in that he
appoints federal judges and supreme
court judges
subject to senate approval of course
he's the nation's chief diplomat which
is the source of his foreign policy
power the president can also propose
laws although he has to get a
congressman or senator to actually
introduce them into congress this is a
legislative power and since he's the
chief executive he also has executive
power which means that he's supposed to
ensure that the laws are carried out
this is his most far-reaching power
probably because it's the least
well-defined
executive power is a pretty big deal so
we're going to give that its own episode
another way to describe the president's
powers is as either formal or informal
formal powers are the ones we can find
in the constitution itself
mainly in article 2. the informal powers
come either from congress or the
president himself but for now let's look
at the formal powers which like those
given to congress are also known as
express powers
let's go to the thought bubble
unfortunately presidents don't derive
their powers from the sun like superman
or from exposure to radiation like the
fantastic four of the hulk their powers
come from the constitution which again
unfortunately doesn't have any
supernatural or mystical power
although some people like to think it
does the first power given to the
president in the constitution is that he
is the commander-in-chief of the armed
forces which at the time was just the
army and navy
since there were no airplanes there's a
reason why this should be the first
power if there's one thing that almost
everyone can agree on it's that the
first job of government is to keep its
citizens safe especially from foreign
invasion the u.s has had a lot of
generals become president
washington jackson william henry
harrison taylor grant
eisenhower and many others have served
in the military but only one president
has led the us troops in the field while
he was president and that was george
washington
the whiskey rebellion that's something
worth fighting over the president has
diplomatic powers although he doesn't
actually do most
of the diplomacy the president has the
power to make treaties which are mostly
written by the state department
officials but he takes credit he
appoints ambassadors in those state
department officials i just mentioned
his most visible foreign policy power is
to receive ambassadors which not only
makes for great photo opportunities
selfie but also as a significant power
because receiving an ambassador
effectively means recognition of that
ambassador's country's existence so the
president can actually legitimize a
nation-state maybe he does have
superpowers
the constitution requires that the
president from time to time inform
congress of the state of the union
this takes the form of an annual state
of the union address historically
presidents did this in writing although
george washington made a formal address
we have woodrow wilson to thank for
reviving the practice of making the
state of the union an actual speech
which now appears on television early
each year this may not seem like much of
a power but the state of the union is a
chance for the president to set a policy
agenda for the next year
and it can put some pressure on congress
to make policies thanks thought bubble
so the president has a couple of other
powers we've already talked about the
president has a formal legislative power
to veto laws passed by congress
he also has the power to convene
congress into special sessions the
president also has judicial powers he
can appoint judges but only with the
consent of the senate he does have the
power to grant pardons and reprieves
which doesn't sound like a big deal
unless you're in jail or threatened by
criminal prosecution
in which case it's a very big deal so
there you have it those are the formal
constitutional powers of the president
of the united states you may have
noticed that there aren't all that many
of them which is kind of the point the
framers of the constitution wanted a
limited government one that couldn't
oppress the people
they were especially afraid of a strong
executive like a king in charge of a
standing army so they deliberately tried
to curtail his powers by not giving him
very many but as we'll see in the next
few episodes over the course of the last
240 years or so the powers of the
president have expanded far beyond what
the framers probably envisioned thanks
for watching
i'll see you next week i can feel my
powers expanding
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