President of the United States of America

Template:Stub The President of the United States --sometimes abbreviated POTUS -- is the head of the U.S. Executive Branch and head of state of the United States of America and one of the most powerful people in the world. The writers of the constitution recognized they were writing a job description which, in England, was and is filled by the the job of the Prime Minister and position of the Monarch. At that time, the Monarchy of England did not seem to serve the common man and the writers wanted to create a government that did.

Current President

The current President is George W. Bush. He is scheduled to leave office on January 20, 2009. His successor will be elected in 2008.

Election

The President is selected every four years by the Electoral College, a few days after their election on Election Day. This process makes the Presidency one of the few non elected political positions in the United States of America.

Term Limits

After Franklin Roosevelt served a little over twelve years in office, Congress passed a Constitutional Amendment restricting future Presidents to two terms.

However if the Vice President succeeds to the Presidency, with no more than two years left in the prior President's term, they are allowed to to run for two terms, raising the potential time in office to ten years.

Term limits were instituted to prevent one person from being President for life.

Past Presidents

Due to space constraints, the list is at Presidents of the United States