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James Carville

James Carville

James Carville (born October 25, 1944), is an American political consultant, commentator and pundit. Also known as the "Ragin' Cajun"1, Carville is considered a very effective Democratic political operative. He gained national attention for his work as the strategist of the successful 1992 presidential campaign of then-governor Bill Clinton. (David Wilhelm was the campaign manager.) Carville was the co-host of CNN's Crossfire until its final broadcast in June 2005.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Carville, Louisiana to Chester James Carville and Lucille Norman, Carville has a distinct American Southern accent, which coupled with his quick and fiery rhetoric made him a charismatic manager of underdog political candidates, and a mediagenic commentator during the Clinton Administration. Before entering politics, Carville worked as a litigator at a Baton Rouge law firm from 1973-1979 and also had brief stints in the U.S. Marines and as a high school teacher. He graduated from Louisiana State University with undergraduate and law degrees. Prior to the Clinton campaign, Carville and consulting partner Paul Begala, gained other well-known political victories, including the 1991 Senate victory of Harris Wofford and the 1990 gubernatorial victories of Zell Miller and Robert Casey. Carville has since stopped working on domestic campaigns, stating that he would bring unneeded publicity, but he has worked on a number of foreign campaigns, including those of Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, Ehud Barak of Israel's Labor Party, and the Liberal Party of Canada. In 2004 he worked for John Kerry's failed presidential campaign.

1992 Clinton campaign

In 1992, Carville helped lead Bill Clinton to a win against George H. W. Bush in the presidential election. In 1993, Carville was honored as Campaign Manager of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants. His role on the Clinton campaign was documented in the feature-length Academy Award-nominated film, The War Room. One of the formulations he used in that campaign has entered the language, derived from a list he posted in the war room to help focus himself and his staff, with these three points: # Change vs. more of the same. #The economy, stupid. # Don't forget health care.

Writings and other information

Carville is also a best-selling author and co-author. With his wife, Republican Mary Matalin, Carville co-wrote All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President. Later he wrote: We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives, The Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr and Stickin. Suck Up, Buck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up, Carville's co-written book with Paul Begala, details strategies for fighting and winning in business, politics, and life. In 2004,Carville released a political banter book entitled Had Enough?. He enjoys including favorite recipes in his books.

Film and television appearances


- In the film Old School, Carville makes a humorous cameo appearing as himself, brought in as a ringer at a college-level debate society meeting. Will Ferrell then inexplicably gives a complex answer regarding US biotechnology policy. When it comes to Carville's rebuttal, he only says, "...We...(stumbles) have no response. That was perfect...."
- He appears as a district attorney prosecuting the title character in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt.
- Carville makes a cameo in the movie Wedding Crashers.
- Carville appears as himself in an episode of Spin City.
- Carville appears as himself in an episode of "Family Guy," as a political consultant to Peter's campaign to save his school board presidency. However, Peter cannot bring himself to look at Carville, screaming and looking away in horror, believing Carville to be "circus ugly."
- Carville plays a judge in an episode of King of the Hill.
- Carville played himself in the Clooney/Soderbergh produced HBO series K Street.

Note

# Ragin' Cajun is the name of the mascot of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly known as University of Southwestern Louisiana ).

Quotations


- "Republicans now have their own network on Fox, so guys who don't like to answer questions, like Trent Lott, have a place to go to hit softballs."
- "But one of Clinton's problems was, the interest groups don't care about the working poor. The Republicans don't care about the working poor — they don't know any. The Op-Ed writers don't care about the working poor. The editorial writers don't care about the working poor. The talking heads don't care about the working poor."
- "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil."
- "We didn't find the key to the electoral lock...we just picked it." - Remarking about the 1992 Election.
- "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." - referring to Paula Jones and her charge that President Clinton had sexually assaulted her.
- "Don't get mad. Don't get even. Just get elected, then get even."

References


- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.

External links


- [http://www.carville.info/ The Office of James Carville]
- [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/carville.james.html CNN Biography]
- [http://www.democracycorps.com Democracy Corps] Carville, James Carville, James Carville, James Carville, James Carville, James Carville, James Carville, James

October 25

October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining.

Events


- 1415 - The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.
- 1616 - Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the Western Australian coast.
- 1747 - British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats French at the second battle of Cape Finisterre.
- 1760 - George III becomes King of Great Britain
- 1813 - War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks beat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.
- 1828 - The St Katharine Docks opened in London.
- 1854 - The Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade).
- 1861 - The Toronto Stock Exchange was created.
- 1900 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
- 1917 - The Bolshevik Revolution Commences.
- 1922 - The Dail of the Irish Free State approves the constitution of the new state, formally bringing it into being.
- 1923 - The United States Senate begins investigating the Teapot Dome scandal
- 1924 - The forged Zinoviev Letter is published in the Daily Mail, wrecking the British Labour Party's hopes of re-election.
- 1936 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini create the Rome-Berlin Axis.
- 1938 - The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".
- 1944 - Japan launches first kamikaze attacks, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf
- 1944 - Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich
- 1944 - The USS Tang (SS-306) under Richard O'Kane (the top submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by her own torpedo.
- 1945 - The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies.
- 1962 - Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba
- 1971 - The United Nations seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China (see China and the United Nations)
- 1983 - Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters were executed in a coup d'état.
- 1986 - The New York Mets defeat the Boston Red Sox due to Bill Buckner's famous error in Game 6 of the World Series and go on to win the championship two days later.
- 1987 - Logan Tenhet born
- 1991 - Rock band Steely Dan reunites.
- 1992 - Latvia establishes its first post-Soviet constitution.
- 1993 - Jean Chrétien becomes prime minister of Canada with a massive majority for his Liberal Party in a general election in which the governing Progressive Conservatives, led by Kim Campbell, lost 149 of 151 seats in the parliament.
- 1994 - Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina claims that a black carjacker had driven off with her two sons. She later confessed to drowning the children in John D. Long Lake, and was convicted of murder.
- 1994 - Kara Spears Hultgreen is killed when on final approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln in her F-14 Tomcat.
- 1995 - A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- 1997 - After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
- 2001 - Microsoft releases Windows XP
- 2003 - The Cedar Fire is reported at 5:37 pm. It becomes the largest wildfire in California history.
- 2004 - Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8th.
- 2004 - Official Guided by Voices Day in Bloomington, Indiana.

Births


- 1102 - William Clito, Count of Flanders (d. 1128)
- 1330 - Louis II of Flanders (d. 1384)
- 1683 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician (d. 1757)
- 1692 - Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (d. 1766)
- 1767 - Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (d. 1830)
- 1806 - Max Stirner, German philosopher (d. 1856)
- 1811 - Évariste Galois, French mathematician (d. 1832)
- 1825 - Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (d. 1899)
- 1838 - Georges Bizet, French composer (d. 1875)
- 1856 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (d. 1936)
- 1864 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
- 1867 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general (d.1937)
- 1869 - John Heisman, American football coach (d. 1936)
- 1881 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (d. 1973)
- 1888 - Richard E. Byrd, American explorer (d. 1957)
- 1889 - Abel Gance, French film writer (d. 1981)
- 1892 - Leo G. Carroll, English actor (d. 1972)
- 1895 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
- 1902 - Eddie Lang, American jazz guitarist (d. 1933)
- 1903 - Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (d. 1976)
- 1908 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
- 1910 - William Higinbotham, physicist (d. 1994)
- 1912 - Minnie Pearl, American comedienne and singer (d. 1996)
- 1913 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal (d. 1991)
- 1914 - John Berryman, American poet (d. 1972)
- 1915 - Ivan M. Niven, Canadian mathematician (d. 1999)
- 1921 - King Michael I of Romania
- 1924 - Billy Barty, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1926 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
- 1927 - Barbara Cook, American singer and actress
- 1928 - Marion Ross, American actress
- 1935 - Russell Schweickart, astronaut
- 1940 - Bobby Knight, American basketball coach
- 1941 - Anne Tyler, American novelist
- 1942 - Helen Reddy, Australian singer
- 1944 - Jon Anderson, English singer (Yes)
- 1944 - James Carville, American political operative
- 1948 - Dan Gable, American wrestler and coach
- 1948 - Glenn Tipton, English guitarist
- 1954 - Mike Eruzione, American hockey player
- 1955 - Robin Eubanks, American jazz trombonist
- 1959 - Nancy Cartwright, American voice actress
- 1961 - Grover Waldrop, American biochemist
- 1962 - Chad Smith, American drummer (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- 1962 - Darlene Vogel, American actress
- 1964 - Nicole, German singer
- 1970 - Ed Robertson, Canadian guitarist and singer (Barenaked Ladies)
- 1971 - Pedro Martínez, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- 1971 - Midori, Japanese violinist
- 1976 - Joshua P. Warren, American author and paranormal investigator
- 1977 - Birgit Prinz, German footballer
- 1978 - Russell Anderson, Scottish footballer
- 1979 - Tony Torcato, baseball player
- 1981 - Shaun Wright-Phillips, English footballer
- 1984 - Sara Helena Lumholdt, Swedish musician (A-Teens)
- 1985 - Ciara Harris, American singer
- 1988 - Carolyn Hirtle, Canadian Chick
- 1995 - Conchita Campbell, Canadian actress

Deaths


- 304 - Pope Marcellinus (martyred)
- 625 - Pope Boniface V
- 1047 - King Magnus I of Norway (b. 1024)
- 1154 - King Stephen of England (b. 1096)
- 1230 - Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (b. 1180)
- 1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet
- 1415 - Killed in the Battle of Agincourt:
  - Charles d'Albret, Count of Dreux and Constable of France
  - John I of Alençon (b. 1385)
  - Antoine, Duke of Brabant (b. 1384)
  - Philip of Burgundy, Count of Nevers and Rethel (b. 1389)
  - Frederick of Lorraine (born 1371)
  - Philip II, Count of Nevers (b. 1389)
  - Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl of Suffolk (born 1394)
  - Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (born 1373)
- 1492 - Thaddeus McCarthy, Irish Catholic bishop
- 1495 - King John II of Portugal (b. 1455)
- 1514 - William Elphinstone, Scottish bishop and statesman (b. 1431)
- 1555 - Olympia Fulvia Morata, Italian classical scholar (b. 1526)
- 1557 - William Cavendish, English politician (b. 1505)
- 1633 - Jean Titelouze, French organist
- 1647 - Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (b. 1608)
- 1683 - William Scroggs, Lord Chief Justice of England
- 1733 - Giovanni Gerolamo Saccheri, Italian mathematician (b. 1667)
- 1757 - Antoine Augustine Calmet, French theologian (b. 1672)
- 1760 - George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)
- 1889 - Émile Augier, French dramatist (b. 1820)
- 1895 - Charles Hallé, German pianist and conductor (b. 1819)
- 1910 - Willie Anderson, Scottish-born golfer (b. 1878)
- 1920 - King Alexander I of Greece (bitten by a pet monkey) (b. 1893)
- 1921 - Bat Masterson, American journalist and lawman
- 1938 - Alfonsina Storni, Argentine poet (b. 1892)
- 1953 - Holger Pedersen, Danish linguist (b. 1867)
- 1957 - Albert Anastasia, Italian-born gangster (b. 1902)
- 1957 - Lord Dunsany, Irish writer (b. 1878)
- 1963 - Roger Désormière, French conductor (b. 1898)
- 1973 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian athlete (b. 1932)
- 1974 - Nick Drake, English musician and songwriter (b. 1948)
- 1980 - Virgil Fox, American organist (b. 1912)
- 1986 - Forrest Tucker, America actor (b. 1919)
- 1991 - Bill Graham, German-born concert promoter (b. 1931)
- 1992 - Roger Miller, American musician and composer (b. 1936)
- 1993 - Danny Chan, Hong Kong singer, actor, and songwriter (b. 1958)
- 1993 - Vincent Price, American actor (b. 1911)
- 1995 - Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (b. 1918)
- 1999 - Payne Stewart, American golfer (b. 1957)
- 2002 - Richard Harris, Irish actor (b. 1930)
- 2002 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (b. 1944)
- 2004 - John Peel, British disc jockey (b. 1939)
- 2005 - Wellington Mara, American football team owner (b. 1916)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - Feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispian; Six Welsh martyrs and companions; forty martyrs of England and Wales
- Also see October 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Kazakhstan - Republic Day
- Republic of China - Taiwan Retrocession Day (1945)
- Virgin Islands - Thanksgiving Day : end of the hurricane season
- Day of the Romanian Army

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/25 BBC: On This Day] ---- October 24 - October 26 - November 25 - September 25 - more historical anniversaries ko:10월 25일 ms:25 Oktober ja:10月25日 simple:October 25 th:25 ตุลาคม

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Pundit

The term Pundit has multiple meanings:
- A pundit or pandit, in the culture of India, is a master of traditional religious poetry and/or traditional music.
- The term pundit was used in the 19th century to denote native surveyors who explored regions to the north of India for the British Empire
- Pundit in contemporary English refers to an expert or opinion-leader, particularly in the field of political analysis. It can also be used pejoratively to denote someone who shouts and pushes his personal opinions and insults his ideological opponents as opposed to someone who makes proper logical arguments.

External links


- [http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/bigotry.html THE PARIAH AND THE PUNDIT: A UNIQUE CASE OF LITERARY BIGOTRY]

President of the United States

The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated "POTUS") is the head of state of the United States. Under the U.S. Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The full title is President of the United States of America. Because of the superpower status of the United States, the American President is widely considered to be the most powerful person on Earth, and is usually one of the world's best-known public figures. During the Cold War, the President was sometimes referred to as "the leader of the free world," a phrase that is still invoked today. The United States was the first nation to create the office of President as the head of state in a modern republic. Today the office is widely emulated all over the world in nations with a presidential system of government. Many countries with a parliamentary system also have an office named "president", but the roles of this office vary widely, and the President in such systems usually has far more limited powers than the Prime Minister. The 43rd and current President of the United States is George W. Bush. His first term ran from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005; his second term began on January 20, 2005 and ends on January 20, 2009; and President Bush is constitutionally barred from a third term.

Requirements to hold office

Section One of Article II of the U.S. Constitution establishes the requirements one must meet in order to become President. The president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States (or a citizen of the United States at the time the U.S. Constitution was adopted), be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. The natural-born citizenship requirement has been the subject of controversy. Critics argue that this requirement arbitrarily excludes some highly qualified candidates for the Presidency. They also charge that supporters fail to appreciate the contributions made by immigrants to American society. Proponents of the requirement argue that the requirement helps to ensure that the President fully understands and is a part of the American people and their outlook. Proponents also argue that the clause helps protect the country from foreign interference—another country could send an emigrant to the United States and through subterfuge get them elected. Many prominent public officials, such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA; born in Austria) and Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI; born in Canada), are barred from the presidency because they were not natural-born citizens. Constitutional amendments are occasionally proposed to remove or modify this requirement, but none have been successful.

Election

Presidential elections are held every four years. Presidents are elected indirectly, through the Electoral College. The President and the Vice President are the only two nationally elected officials in the United States. (Legislators are elected on a state-by-state basis; other executive officers and judges are appointed.)

Old system

Originally, each elector voted for two people for President. The votes were tallied and the person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided that such a number was a majority of electors) became President, while the individual who was in second place became Vice President.

Current system

The Amendment XII in 1804 changed the electoral process by directing the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice President. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes, or if no candidate receives a majority, the President and Vice President are chosen by the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, as necessary.

Campaign

The modern Presidential election process begins with the primary elections, during which the major parties (currently the Democrats and the Republicans) each select a nominee to unite behind; the nominee in turn selects a running mate to join him on the ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. The two major candidates then face off in the general election, usually participating in nationally televised debates before Election Day and campaigning across the country to explain their views and plans to the voters. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states, through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.

Inauguration and oath of office

mass media Since 1933, with the ratification of Amendment XX, a newly elected President, or a re-elected incumbent, is sworn into office on January 20 of the year following the election, an event called Inauguration Day. Although the Chief Justice of the United States usually administers the presidential oath of office, the Constitution does not specify any requirements; thus, anyone with the legal authority to administer oaths can perform the duty. In accordance with Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution, upon entering office, the President must 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." Only presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover have chosen to affirm rather than swear. The oath is traditionally ended with, "So help me God," although for religious reasons some Presidents have said, "So help me", or "and thus I swear." On Inauguration Day, following the oath of office, the President customarily delivers an inaugural address which sets the tone for his administration. These addresses can reach the level of high oratory, from such stand-alone lines as Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," to entire speeches, such as Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

Term(s) of office

Under the Constitution, the President serves a four-year term. Amendment XXII (which took effect in 1951 and was first applied to Dwight D. Eisenhower starting in 1953) limits the president to either two four-year terms or a maximum of ten years in office should he have succeeded to the Presidency previously and served two years at most completing his predecessor's term. Since then, three presidents have served two full terms: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Incumbent President George W. Bush would become the fourth if he completes his current (and second) term in 2009. (Richard Nixon was elected to a second term but resigned before completing it.)

Succession

The United States presidential line of succession is a detailed list of government officials to serve or act as President upon a vacancy in the office due to death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and conviction). impeachment, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy]] The line of 17 begins with the Vice President and ends with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Legislation to add the Secretary of Homeland Security to the line of succession is pending in Congress. The Constitution provided that, if a President were to die, resign, or be removed from office, the "powers and duties" of the office would devolve upon the Vice President, Article II, Section 1 (which seems to imply the position of acting president), and that he [Vice President] shall "exercise the office of President of the United States," Article I, Section 2 (which seems to imply actual assumption of the presidency itself). People did not agree as to the exact meaning and intention of the text, and whether the Vice President would succeed to the office of President or merely act as President. After the death of William Henry Harrison, however, Vice President John Tyler asserted that he had become the President, not merely Acting President, and this precedent was followed in all subsequent cases. The 25th amendment eliminated this ambiguity by confirming that the Vice President fully becomes President, not Acting President, if the presidency becomes vacant. It sets the Vice President first in the line of succession and spells out a process for him to serve as Acting President should the President become temporarily disabled. A provision of the United States Code () establishes the rest of the succession line. To date, no officer other than the Vice President has been called upon to act as President.

Powers

The President, according to the Constitution, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, the president presides over the executive branch of the federal government; a vast organization of about 4 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel. A President-elect will make as many as 6,000 appointments to government positions, including appointments to the federal judiciary. The Senate must consent to all judicial appointments as well as the appointments of all principal officers. The President may veto laws made by the United States Congress but cannot personally initiate laws. Congress can overturn the veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses. He is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President may make treaties, but the Senate must ratify them by a two-thirds supermajority. The political scientist Richard Neustadt said, "Presidential power is the power to persuade and the power to persuade is the ability to bargain". He was commenting on the fact that the President's domestically constitutional power is limited, despite the modern expectation of Presidents to have a legislative program, and successful bargaining with Congress is usually essential to Presidential success.

Presidential salary and benefits

Salary

The First U.S. Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a significant sum in 1789. (Washington, already a successful man, refused to accept his salary.) Traditionally, the President is the highest-paid government employee. Consequently, the President's salary serves as a traditional cap for all other federal officials, such as the Chief Justice. A raise for 2001 was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 because other officials who receive annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching the President's. Consequently, to raise the salaries of the other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised as well. While far higher than the median wage in the United States, in modern times the President's salary is paltry compared to the Chief Executive Officers of many publicly-listed companies, and indeed modern Presidents have typically earned far more in the corporate world after the end of their term than they did as President.

Residences

Chief Executive Officer Among the many non-salary benefits are living and working in the White House mansion in Washington, DC The President's principal workplace and official residence is the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Washington, DC. His official vacation or weekend residence is Ca