The president's constitutional roles, such as chief executive and commander in chief,
are based on very precise constitutional grants of power.
are rooted in tradition only; they have no basis in the language of the Constitution.
are not subject to check by Congress.
have expanded in practice to be more powerful than the writers of the Constitution intended.
are absolute powers under the Constitution.
Congress has formally declared war ________ times in U.S. history.
2
5
55
200
6,500
The Whig theory holds that the presidency
is a shared office where the president and the cabinet are equally powerful.
is a limited office whose occupant is confined to the exercise of expressly granted constitutional powers.
is the office most representative of the people.
should provide strong leadership in the area of foreign policy but not in domestic policy.
is subordinate to the Supreme Court.
The president's role in foreign policy increased largely because
Congress proved so inept in foreign affairs that the American people demanded a change.
America became more of a world power.
of the need to coordinate national economic policy and foreign policy, a task to which the presidency was well suited.
of the desire of U.S. business to expand into Latin America and Asia, which required executive action at the highest level.
of attitudes held by the American public.
Which of the following is true of the vice presidency?
Presidents in the nineteenth century paid more attention to their vice presidents and granted them more authority.
The Constitution assigns no executive authority to the vice president.
Jimmy Carter reduced the power of the vice presidency by removing the vice president's office from the White House.
The constitutional powers of the vice presidency have been increased by Congress twice during U.S. history.
Daniel Webster and Henry Clay accepted nominations to the vice presidency as stepping stones to the presidency.
The primary election as a means of choosing presidential nominees
was introduced during the Jacksonian era.
is used in Europe as well as in the United States.
has been used more extensively in recent decades, such that the candidate who dominates the primaries can usually expect to receive the nomination.
is designed to strengthen the political parties.
was introduced during the Cleveland era.
Candidate strategy in the early presidential nominating contests (such as New Hampshire's primary) is designed chiefly to gain
momentum.
the support of the party's organizational leaders.
the support of the party's congressional leaders.
the endorsement of the mass media.
the support of partisan rivals.
The selection of the vice presidential nominee at the national convention is based on the
results of the primaries and caucuses; the candidate who places second in these contests is nominated as the running mate of the candidate who finishes first.
convention delegates' judgment as to the candidate who would make the best vice president.
results of public opinion polls taken just before the convention begins.
presidential nominee's choice of a running mate.
None of these answers is correct.
President Obama's failure in his early months in office to enact policies to combat global warming, despite his determination to do so, is reflective primarily of
the two-presidency problem.
fear of impeachment.
blocking by Congress.
lack of sufficient executive authority.
poor circumstance related to the economy.
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) was created in ________.
1789
1804
1865
1888
1939
The presidential advisory unit that, as a whole, has declined significantly as an advisory resource for the president in the twentieth century is the
Council of Economic Advisers.
Office of Management and Budget.
White House Office.
National Security Council.
the Cabinet (as a whole).
Which of the following did the framers want from a president?
national leadership
administration of the laws
statesmanship in foreign affairs
command of the military
All these answers are correct.
The presidency was created by Article ________ of the U.S. Constitution.
1
3
4
According to the U.S. Constitution, if no one candidate receives a majority vote of the Electoral College, who chooses the president?
the U.S. Senate
the U.S. House of Representatives
both the Senate and House in joint session
the Supreme Court
the people, in a runoff election
Under which president did the Electoral College selection process change to a popular vote?
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
Which of the following presidents failed to win an electoral majority, but still won the presidency by decision of the House of Representatives?
John Quincy Adams
Rutherford B. Hayes
Benjamin Harrison
George W. Bush
After which party convention did the Democrats force major changes in the presidential nominating process?
1948
1960
1968
1984
1992
Which of the following states gives one Electoral College vote to the winner of each congressional district and two Electoral College votes to the statewide winner?
Texas
Maine
New York
New Hampshire
Iowa
Which one of the following did NOT serve as a state governor prior to being president?
Ronald Reagan
Bill Clinton
John Kennedy
Jimmy Carter
Which of the following is part of the Executive Office of the President?
Office of Management and Budget
National Economic Council
National Security Council
Office of Legislative Affairs
Which of the following is a formal constitutional requirement for becoming president?
must be at least 40 years of age
must be a resident in the United States for at least 10 years
must be a natural-born citizen
must be a white male
must be a Protestant
Which of the following is NOT true of the 2004 presidential election?
Howard Dean did not accept federal matching funds in the primaries.
John Kerry accepted federal matching funds in the primaries.
George W. Bush did not accept federal matching funds in the primaries.
None of the three candidates (Dean, Kerry, and Bush) accepted federal matching funds in the primaries.
Whereas today candidates rely on the media, previously they based their campaigns on the
work of grass-roots organizers.
party organizations.
mass mailing of campaign literature.
staging of personal appearances.
efforts of friendly civilian and corporate group efforts.
Which of the following is true of the president's veto power?
Presidents are limited in their use of the veto on legislation directly affecting national security or economic policy.
The threat of a veto has never proven to be enough to make Congress bend to the president's demands.
Congress can usually muster the two-thirds majority in each chamber required to override a presidential veto.
The veto is as much a sign of presidential weakness as of strength, because it arises when Congress refuses to accept the president's ideas.
President Bush used the veto less and less during the course of his presidency so as not to cause his popularity to fall.
Which of the following is a reason that the nation did not routinely need a strong president during most of the nineteenth century?
the small policymaking role of the federal government
the sectional nature of the nation's major issues
the U.S. government's small role in world affairs
all of these factors: the small policymaking role of the federal government; the sectional nature of the nation's major issues; and the U.S. government's small role in world affairs
Which of the following happened in the presidential election of 2000?
George W. Bush won the popular vote.
Ralph Nader won Florida by 537 votes.
Al Gore won a slim majority of votes in the Electoral College.
Al Gore received 550,000 more votes nationally than Ralph Nader.
Ralph Nader received 3 percent of the popular vote.
Which of the following was a provision of the War Powers Act?
It prohibits the president from sending troops into combat.
It requires hostilities to end within sixty days unless Congress extends the period.
It requires Congress to consult with the president whenever feasible before passing measures that will restrict president-ordered military action.
It requires the president to inform Congress within one month of the reason for the military action.
It removes from Congress the power to restrict the timing or size of president-initiated military actions.
The presidency is an
extraordinarily strong office with sufficient powers to enable the president to control national policy under virtually all circumstances.
inherently weak office, in that presidents have almost no capacity to influence the major directions of national policy.
office in which power is conditional, depending on whether the political support that gives force to presidential leadership exists or can be developed.
office where power depends almost entirely on its occupant; strong leaders are always successful presidents, and weak ones never succeed.
office where power is fairly constant, regardless of the occupant or the circumstances.
A president's accomplishments have largely depended on
the margin of victory in the presidential campaign.
whether circumstances favor strong presidential leadership.
the president's ability to come up with good ideas.
the president's skill at balancing the demands of competing groups.
mid-term elections.
The honeymoon period occurs during
a president's second term only.
the first part of a president's term.
the period of a president's term immediately following a successful foreign policy initiative.
the period of a president's term immediately following a successful domestic policy initiative.
the State of the Union address.
