The President of the United States, POTUS familiarly known, is the highest political office and the commander in chief of the armed forces.
By the Treaties of Paris of 1783, the U.S. gained independence but the agreement did not provide any type of governmental structure. Unable to find a stable formula after the revolution, and with a very serious economic and social situation, Congress created a Constituent Assembly to write the new constitution and create the new system of government. The Chairman then became the highest office in government despite having few executive powers, but the Constitution adopted in 1788 established the new post of President of the United States, with more executive powers, but mitigated by the separation of legislative and judicial branches.
With the Second World War, the U.S. President has assumed the role of "leader of the free world."
Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the Constitution states that it is eligible to the office who is a citizen born in the U.S., has at least 35 years of which 14 passed on U.S. soil. Originally, there was no requirement that the president must be born on U.S. soil. The Constitution provides that the Senate has the power to remove the president (impeachment). The Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, provides that no person can be President for more than two terms, not necessarily consecutive. Also, anyone who serves for more than two years as President or Acting President for one term he was elected someone else, can then be elected for un solo mandato.
Poichè prima del 1792 non esistevano partiti politici nel governo, la Costituzione non li cita, e d'altronde fino a buona parte del XIX secolo ricoprirono un ruolo minore nell'elezione di un Presidente: nel 1824 tutti i candidati provenivano dallo stesso partito, e anche se Andrew Jackson ottenne la maggioranza di Grandi Elettori, non avendo raggiunto il quorum non divenne Presidente. L'elezione fu decisa dalla Camera, che elesse John Quincy Adams.
Dopo la Guerra Civile, la spaccatura nel paese portò alla nascita dei due partiti, Democratico e Repubblicano, da cui provengono tutti i Presidenti eletti da allora. Non sono comun que mancati importanti candidati di terzi partiti, tra cui l'ex Presidente Theodore Roosevelt, che uscì dal partito Repubblicano per fondare il Progressive Party, Harry F. Byrd che pur non essendo candidato ottenne 15 voti elettorali nel 1960, e Ross Perot, che ottenne il 19% dei voti nel 1992 ma nessuno stato.
Nonostante i Presidenti siano 43 (Barack Obama sarà il 44°), sono solo 42 le persone che hanno ricoperto l'incarico. Infatti Grover Cleveland ha servito per due mandati non consecutivi, ed è quindi stato calcolato sia come 22° che come 24° Presidente.
L'elenco non include i Presidenti facenti funzione (Acting President). Prima dell'approvazione del 25° emendamento non esisteva una figura giuridica simile, anche se in molti casi, a partire da George Washington, alcuni Presidenti si sono fatti sostituire temporarily. Since the approval of 25 ° emandamento only three times has had an acting president: in 1985 (George H. Bush replaced for one day Reagan, who had to undergo surgery under general anesthesia), in 2002 and 2007 (Dick Cheney replaced for about two hours George W. Bush, who had to undergo a colonoscopy under general anesthesia).
Among the U.S. presidents, all were Christian, all Protestant except John F. Kennedy, a Catholic. Among Protestants, the majority were Episcopalians, but there were also two Unitarians and Quakers (Hoover and Nixon). Dwight Eisenhower was born as a Jehovah's Witness but became presbitariano after the election, in 1953. The
President elected with the largest number of electoral votes du George Washington (unanimity). Franklin Roosevelt was President for the longest time (12 years, the only one to be elected more than two terms), while William Henry Harrison has the unenviable record of the Presidency shorter: 32 days. Ronald Reagan was the oldest president to be elected to the first term (69 years, 11 months and 14 days). The youngest president in the first mandate was Theodore Roosevelt (42 years, 10 months and 18 days), but succeeded William McKinley, assssinato. The youngest president at the time of the election popular was John Kennedy (43 years, 7 months, 22 days). 4 Presidents died of natural causes while in office, four were killed and one has resigned (Nixon). Two (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton) has been subject to impeachment, but it has not been approved by the Senate (Johnson was saved by one vote)
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