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( President of the United States)
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Politics and government of
the United States The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition. The President leads the executive branch of the federal government; his role is to execute the law as created by the Congress, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States. Article II of the Constitution establishes the President as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and enumerates powers specifically granted to the President, including the power to sign into law or veto bills passed by both houses of the Congress. The President also has the power to create a cabinet of advisers and to grant pardons or reprieves. Finally, with the "advice and consent" of the Senate, the President is empowered to make treaties and appoint federal officers, ambassadors, and federal judges, including Justices of the Supreme Court. As with officials in the other branches of the United States government, the Constitution restrains the President with a set of checks and balances designed to prevent any individual or group from taking absolute power. The President is elected by the people indirectly through the Electoral College to a four-year term, with a limit of two terms imposed by the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951. Under this system, each state is allocated a number of electoral votes equal to the size of the state's combined delegation in both houses of the Congress. The District of Columbia is also granted electoral votes, per the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution. Voters in nearly all states choose, through a plurality voting system, a presidential candidate who receives all of that state's electoral votes. An absolute majority of electoral votes is needed to become President; if no candidate receives a majority, the choice is given to the House of Representatives, which votes by state delegation. Since the adoption of the Constitution, forty-two individuals have been elected or succeeded into the presidency, serving fifty-five four-year terms altogether. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted as both the 22nd and the 24th president. Because of this, all presidents after the 23rd have their official listing increased by one. Current President George W. Bush, the forty-third President, was inaugurated on January 20, 2001, to a first term and on January 20, 2005, to a second term, which expires at noon on January 20, 2009. Barack Obama, having won the 2008 presidential election, is expected to be inaugurated shortly after noon.
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