Rowan Corbin

Johnson

Gov

12/7/18

1) The eight roles for the President of the United States are chief of state, chief executive,

chief administrator, chief diplomat, commander in chief, chief legislator, and chief

citizen.

2) The current president is Donald Trump and his vice president is Mike Pence. They are

both Republicans. Second in line after Mike Pence is Paul Ryan, who is Speaker of the

House of Representatives, and third is Orrin Hatch, President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

3) I think a President should be educated, rational, and compassionate. I think a good

President cares about the world, not just the United States. However, I do not think these

characteristics are necessarily tied to their election campaign. For example, not everyone

votes for the candidate who is the most qualified (as proven in the 2016 election.) A

successful presidency would be one during which the President helped reduce global

warming and spread awareness about climate change. I think this issue is one of the most

immediate and pressing ones facing our country, as well as the whole world, and as such,

the President should be focused on tackling it.

4) The purpose of the 12th amendment was to separate the presidential and vice-presidential

elections. It was written to prevent any future complications after the election in 1800

broke down. This amendment laid the foundation for our government as it exists today.
5) The purpose of the Electoral College is to prevent the public from electing a dictator. I

feel like we do not need an electoral college as much today. The public should be able to

elect the candidates directly, just as they are able to do in all other elections. However, I

think the Proportional Plan would be a good reform. It would ensure that the electoral

vote was more in line with the popular vote, and it would allow minor parties to grow

stronger.

6) I found this website very interesting. At first, the distorted maps were confusing, but now

I see that they are quite useful. An accurate state map is actually misleading because of

the varying population sizes. For example, blue states can actually have more people

even though the acreage on the map is smaller than red states.

7) I favor the viewpoint of Fitzgerald. I don’t believe that the President’s immunity should

be absolute and encompass any actions they took while in office. The Court’s decision to

allow someone to sue the President would have a tremendous impact. For example, the

current President has a number of people who would like to sue him.

8) Line item veto: power given to President to cancel specific dollar amounts in spending

bills enacted by Congress

Reprieve: Postponement of the execution of a punishment

Pardon: Legal forgiveness

Clemency: Mercy

Commutation: Power to reduce the length of a sentence

Amnesty: Blanket pardon offered to groups of criminals

9) The President acts to check other branches by ensuring the enforcement of laws, and to

do this, they are able to pick many of the leaders who are put in charge of departments

and agencies. The legislative branch can check the President by having the power to

impeach them, as well as being able to override their veto of any law.

10) The current Governor of California is Jerry Brown, a democrat. In California, Gavin

Newsom won the gubernatorial election. A state governor and President are very similar;

a governor is essentially a President but on a much smaller scale. It is their duty to look

after the state and to lead the state’s executive branch, similar to a President.

11) The White House website was very informative. The power of the executive branch is

vested in the President, who is responsible for implementing and enforcing the laws

written by Congress. They are also responsible for appointing the heads of federal

agencies. The President is both the head of state and head of government. They have the

power to either sign legislation into law or to veto bills enacted by Congress. The website

of the Office of the Governor of California was similar to the White House website. Both

looked official, but the White House one was definitely cleaner, less cluttered. There was

also less information about the government as a whole on Jerry Brown’s website; the

information was all pertinent to him.