What is the President's job?

This is a great question because it has to be answered with no less than two completely separate answers, both of which are correct.

The first answer, and the one that carries the most weight in the minds of scholars, is the Constitutional responsibilities of the President. These are clearly defined in the US Constitution starting in Section 1 Clause 1, " The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows". Starting off we see he (or she) in vested with the "executive Power" which at this point is not yet defined but you get the hint immediately that he would have responsibility. The next 5 Clauses of Section 1 define the requirements to be President and the process Congress will take to elect this person. For some of you this might come as a shock that the President was not popularly elected by the people in the beginning. It was not until 1824 that the people were allowed to have a popular vote, but even this vote did not elect the President and still doesn't today. That is the sole responsibility of the Electoral College. It is not until Clause 7 that we see another responsibility for the President, "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased (spelled as originally in the document) nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them." OK, he gets a pay check for being President. Seems fair enough... And he won't take a pay check from any of the individual states during that same time. This might appear obvious today that the President is a Federal employee, but during the earliest days of the republic the Federal government didn't have the power it does today, most all of that power was vested in the states so the idea that the President would be representing one state or another with additional zeal was a real concern. Finally in Clause 8 do we see the first of the President's responsibilities, "Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall 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."" So we have found an actual responsibility of the President, he will take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the US". Of course in the oath is the real meat of the job, the protection of the Constitution itself. A noble cause and one of enormous importance as we were the first people to develop a constitution from the people up instead of from the Sovereign down. In doing so we were putting ourselves in the the place of the King or Queen and telling the world that WE were to collective sovereigns of this new country.

When we get to Section 2 of Article 2 do we find more of the President's responsibilities.

"Clause 1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, and later the Marines and Air Force, these I think we all know. He can offer Pardons to criminals except in cases of Impeachment. Pretty Straight forward stuff.

"Clause 2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments." Treaties, this is a big deal. By the President's hand he can enter us into allegiances with good or bad folks, both of which have been done. He is responsible for appointing Ambassadors and judges, including those to the Supreme Court. It is these appointments that can leave a President's mark on history for decades to come after he has left office office or even passed from the this world all together. And he gets to hire his staff so long as the Senate agrees. Keep in mind, in all of these things listed in this Clause, the Senate must agree with or they are a no go.

"Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." If someone dies, quits or gets fired by the Executive branch, the President can appoint someone to fill in until the Senate gets back to give their approval, but if they don't approve, that person is out at the end of that session of congress.

In Section 3 we find a single Clause that encompasses something of a catch all phrase, "He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States." Did you see the phrase? He may, "recommend to their Consideration (Congresses) such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient..." What does this mean? Well one could suggest it means anything he wants it to mean. If the President thinks something is important he can bring it to the Congress and ask them to act upon it. But what he cannot do it simply make it happen, whatever it is. He must bring Congress into agreement that the need is real and they (congress) must enact any laws necessary to authorize the President to deal with the issue. We also see that he is responsible to get with Congress periodically and report the State of the Union to them. This is done most notably through the State of the Union address which takes place yearly. He can call congress together for this purpose, he can receive Ambassadors and he "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." He is after all the chief law enforcement officer of the Constitution. He also commissions all officers of the United States.

Ending Article 2 we find Section 4 which spells out the President and Vice President's removal from office should the need arise and the basis for such removal, "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." No President has ever been removed for any of these reasons, although one came close, Nixon, but chose to resign instead.

So these are the Constitutional responsibilities of the President of the United States. However, in the last 235 years the people, certain Presidents and particular acts of legislation have expanded, at least the in scope of expectation, the President's responsibilities.

Answer number two is more nebulous, harder to put a finger on, and in most cases it is not defined as to what his responsibility is but by what he will be blamed for if it doesn't happen.Of course it also depends on who is laying the blame as to what the President catches hell for. It also has to be remembered that often times the President is supporting or declining legislation put upon the Oval Office desk by Congress and merely reacting to what he put forth by others whether he has had anything to do with the process or not.

So let's look for a moment of some of the things the President gets blamed for.

Jobs (specifically private sector jobs): When the economy is soft and people get laid off or otherwise lose their jobs it is most often the President who takes the brunt of the blame. It is thought (both rightly and wrongly) that the President can determine whether or not you have a job. Rightly through actions or legislation he signs or vetoes or wrongly through the same actions, when times are tough the President is the one blamed the most, more than congress, and even more than those who fired or laid off employees. But can the President really effect this number? Sure he can, but is your employment the President's responsibility? No, it's not. But what is his responsibility is making sure the country is not entered into treaties that offer better terms to those with which we are entering into these trade agreements, because as we saw, treaties are a Presidential responsibility.

Taxes: The tax load of both individuals and companies in this country is almost always placed at the feet of the man in the White House. Why? Because he signs the legislation both raising and lowering them (most often raising them). This of course also has some impact on employers having the free capital to increase their work force which takes us back to the first thing the President gets blamed for, jobs.

Infrastructure: Bridges, roads, utilities, etc. The President gets blamed for these things and many people think it is wrongfully. However, through the issuing of grants to the states, something warned about in the early 1930's, the President, again through the signing or vetoing of such legislation takes on the responsibility for these failures. It used to be that the states raised revenue to repair these things, but today most of the money come from federal grants which often (always) have riders telling the states how the money must be used if they ever hope to get another dime from Uncle Sam for this type of upkeep.

Education: Only in recent years, since the creation in the early 20th century through 1980 when President Carter made the Department of Education a Cabinet Level position within the Federal Government, has the President been held responsible for the outcome of education in this country. Again, the use of grant money has tied the President to this mess.

The list goes on, but rarely does the President take the blame for attacks against our nation over seas. Considering none of these issues listed above fall under his direct role in government, but being Commander in Chief is, it seems strange how America can see an attack on any American anywhere in the world as an attack on us all, yet a failure of any of us in these areas are seen as a failure of one, the President.

Perhaps one of the biggest success vs failure issues the President faces is one of effective communication of vision. "Hope and Change", the current vision we are asked to follow is subjective, "Building a Bridge to the 21st Century", President Clinton's vision was also subjective, "Compassionate Conservatism", President Bush 43's vision, again, subjective. It's had to visualize what a success or a failure in these cases really is. Clinton brought us 8 years of relative growth and prosperity with only minor bumps along the way, Bush 43 brought us through 9/11 and kept us running for 7 years of prosperity until congressional changes through a wrench in matters. Obama is struggling to recapture a movement that swept him into office and them effectively stalled out. Vision is hard to communicate. The Roosevelt's did it well, both Teddy and FDR, Kennedy gave us a concrete goal in the moon to shoot for, literally. But perhaps none of them did it better than Reagan. Reagan took a phrase, "Shinning City on the Hill" and broke it down into a strong military, economic recovery and personal prosperity and American's ran with it.

Vision is not easy to convey, but when it is done effectively there is nothing that can stop America from moving towards success. This many Presidents have gotten praise for. This many a President has been blamed for (think Carter's Malaise speech), but in the end it may well be this responsibility, forged over 235 years of trial and error, the greatest single responsibility of a sitting President.

Whether it be Lincoln's vision of continuing a nation United or FDR's vision of building a stronger America through defense of our allies and protecting the US Constitution from foreign aggressors, or the disaster that was Vietnam, vision in leadership matters.

Who has the Vision to take us into the next 4 years?