5 Things You Didn't Know: The Presidency

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Of being the president of the United States, Harry S. Truman said it is "like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed." An exhibit on the presidency at the Smithsonian puts it another way, saying that the presidency is “a position for which no training can be adequate, no preparation complete, no counsel sufficient — an office that outstrips anyone's capacity to negotiate the ever-widening circle of its responsibilities.”

As an antidote to the monarchies and autocracies of the past, the founding fathers virtually invented the position of a leader elected from the populace. They laced a series of ingenious checks and balances throughout the entire political system to prevent the president from being able to exercise more power than was considered appropriate. The job description as defined in Article II of the Constitution is fairly modest but has for the most part been flexible enough to stay relevant after over 200 years of changes and advances, things that were unimaginable to Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and the rest.

The following offers five things you may not know about the presidency of the United States:



1- It receives four death threats a day

The Secret Service investigates about 1,500 death threats leveled against the president every year, or around just over four per day. The Secret Service was not established in time to save Abraham Lincoln; in fact it was established in the wake of his assassination. Ostensibly it was created to investigate counterfeit currency and is, therefore, under the Department of the Treasury, and not until the assassination of President McKinley did Congress assign to the Secret Service the job of protecting presidents.

Statistically, the presidency is among the most dangerous jobs in history — of 43 presidents, four have been assassinated, making its homicide rate around nine homicides per 100. Compare that to the profession generally considered to be the most dangerous, driving a taxi, in which the rate is around 18 homicides per 100,000.



2- Its job description lists just six duties

He must take an oath to uphold the Constitution.

He must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," as well as "commission all the Officers of the United States."

He is the "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 has the "power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties."

He can nominate, with the consent of the Senate, Supreme Court Judges and “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls... and all other Officers of the United States" as well as "receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.”

And finally, the president has some legislative pull, since he can "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."

As defined in Article II of the Constitution, here are the duties of the president:To quote the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, “You would hardly know from the foregoing that the president of the United States is the most powerful man in the world.”

Three more things you didn't know about the presidency...