The Constitution does make mention of the Vice President, although s/he is not officially entrusted with much power. According to the Constitution, the Vice President’s sole responsibilities are to preside over the Senate and to cast the deciding vote in the event of a Senate-wide tie (both tasks are seldom ever carried out). Curiously, the Constitution contains no provisions concerning the White House staffers, the members of the President’s Cabinet, or the First Lady. George Washington is credited with inventing the Cabinet, a team of confidential advisors chosen by the President, the legality of whose appointments are traditionally determined by the Senate. The White House staffers operate under similar conditions – while not mentioned in the Constitution, an office as prestigious as the Executive Branch could hardly be expected to function effectively without a staff. Many of these aides are personally selected by the President and assist him in a wide variety of necessary tasks, from conducting legislative research to serving as liaisons to various Congressional and military departments. As for the First Lady, while the Constitution neglects to mention her, historically Presidents’ wives have occupied a special role within the government hierarchy. Often, the First Lady serves as her husband’s more accessible representative, making numerous public appearances and championing a wide range of causes to promote the common good.

The Constitution’s list of criterion for presidential eligibility is relatively simple and sparse: any potential president must be at least thirty-five years of age, must have lived in the US for at least fourteen years, and must be a natural-born citizen. No prior governmental service is required – theoretically, anyone is eligible to hold the nation’s highest office without having first obtained any political experience at all. Recently, there has been some debate as to the exact meaning of the “natural-born citizen” clause. The Constitution does not elaborate as to what circumstances constitute “natural-born” citizenship and so a key question remains: Can a naturalized citizen, who meets all the other requirements, become President? As of yet, this issue is unresolved, mainly because the Supreme Court has yet to show much interest, but it is not inconceivable to think that this may be the next of the Constitution’s clauses to soon face judicial clarification.

The Framers were greatly concerned about future Presidents becoming monarchial, snatching up greater extensions of their powers or otherwise trying to dictate commands to the other two branches of government. The Framers imagined that Congress, with its bicameral structure and lengthy membership roster, would act as the main deterrent to any scheming president’s pretensions. This viewpoint might perhaps have been influenced by the outsize personalities that many of the early Congressmen possessed but regardless, the Framers predicted that, in the future, Congress would tend to dominate the President. According to their way of thinking, the Chief Executive would defer to Congress’s desires, allowing Congress to set the administrative agenda and confining himself to responding to legislation that Congress issued, instead of sponsoring, inspiring, or pushing for bills himself (as is the real historic norm).

Surprisingly, party allegiance is not generally considered to be one of the most intrinsically important ingredients of each Presidential administration. This is because the party orientation of individual Presidents tends to play a less vital role when compared to the other factors that comprise administrations – namely, each President’s personality, the powers and roles granted to the President by the Constitution, and the makeup of the underlying governmental bureaucracy. Taken together, these four ingredients overwhelmingly put together the institution of the Presidency, regardless of party allegiance, political era, or historical time period.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only President who has ever served more than two terms – Roosevelt occupied the White House for twelve years, from 1933 and the worst years of the Great Depression to 1945 and the near end of World War Two. Surprisingly, the Congress had never formally legalized the two term precedent set by George Washington, but although this did indeed conceivably allow a President to seek a third term, only two Presidents would ever attempt to do so – and both were members of the Roosevelt family. (Decades earlier, Theodore Roosevelt, who had served as President from 1901 to 1909, had attempted to win a third term in the election of 1912 but had been defeated.) Franklin Roosevelt was thus the only President to ever successfully win a third – and even a fourth! – term in office, largely due to his fervent efforts to lift the American people out of the Great Depression and his adept leadership during the throes of World War II. Sadly, Roosevelt passed away suddenly near the beginning of his fourth term. After his death, Congress and the states ratified the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting each successive President to only eight years in office – this was not done out of dislike for Roosevelt himself but was rather an attempt to preserve Washington’s precedent and to guard against future abuses of Executive power.

To date, Grover Cleveland holds the honor of being the only President to ever serve two non-consecutive terms – he is both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth man to hold the office. The Constitution’s Twenty-second Amendment – which wasn’t passed until 1951 – limits each President to serving a maximum of two terms, but it does not specify that these terms must be served immediately after each other. A Democrat, Cleveland was first elected in 1885 on promises to reform the governmental bureaucracy and put a stop to administrative corruption. However, many Americans saw his efforts as less than satisfactory and he lost his bid for re-election to Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Despite his disappointing electoral loss, Cleveland was determined to return to the Oval Office, and after a four-year absence from national politics, he once again returned as a presidential candidate in 1892. After winning a large majority of the popular vote, Cleveland entered his second term (1893-1897) on a note of high triumph.

Initially the government of the United States was simple and the line of succession began with the Vice President and then the Senate and House of Representatives and the President's Cabinet. As time went on and more cabinet positions were added to meet the needs of a growing country and government, the line of succession was adjusted to include all cabinet members.

The only power listed that is granted to the President is that of pardoning criminals.  The rest of these powers are explicitly given to Congress.

Devolution as a concept relates to the decentralization of power by offering some powers previously reserved for the Federal government to the states. It’s purpose is to reduce the overwhelming power held by the national government. Because it focuses on reducing Federal power, it should be understood as a conservative policy and therefore should lead you to select Ronald Reagan as the correct answer.

In the event that a special session of Congress becomes necessary after Congress has been adjourned, only the President may summon Congress back into session.