Why do people think the President can do anything?

Question

I find it comical that people believe the President can really do anything they want. Except for foreign affairs, the President has very little substantive power.

Answer 1

Because of the "Ex-Presidents" cartoons that used to be on SNL, showing them with super powers.

Answer 2

The way things are going right now, he will.

Answer 3

The president doesn't even need the approval of congress to do what he wants anymore. You obviously disagree with me, but I feel he and his administration have a good deal of power. I'm sure I'll get plenty of thumbs down haha

Answer 4

Because they are ignorant and uneducated on how the government works.  Anyone with even a minimal understanding of government is snickering along with you.

Answer 5

just because the presidency has become a joke, doesn't mean some great men haven't held the office in the past

We have had several presidents who were truly great ( Washington, Lincoln, arguably FDR ) and several who were almost (Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and name your favorite - Truman in my lifetime, but a lot of people would take issue with that).

There are probably several others who had the seeds of greatness, but didn't face the crises that cause ordinary men to rise to that rare level of extraordinary excellence/achievement.

And for every one of the real dogs (Bush x2, Harding, Polk, Van Beuren) there are  a pack of adequate executives, some of whom did good things or even notable things, but were either balanced by negatives or shot down by the circumstances that were handed to them (Johnson is perhaps the classic example).

If I had to pick a best, it would have to be Lincoln, who preserved the Union against almost impossible odds, in the process creating the conditions that would allow the nation to heal and grow after a bitter, horribly destructive Civil War. The effort killed him, figuratively and finally literally, but the Union survives because of him. Finally, I like him because he was as self-made a man and President as we have ever had, an excellent writer, and a very funny guy. In addition, there is no way that this ungainly man, born in poverty, self-educated, a homely country lawyer with a dreadful wife and a sqeaky speaking voice, could ever get elected in the age of TV and computers.   This endears him to me all the more.

Answer 6

the president has power not just through him or herself. they gain it through the members of their cabinet. their power invades the government like a malignant tumor.

Answer 7

Congress is more powerful than the president.

I have no clue where the mentality that the president was the most powerful in government came from. He is the most powerful PERSON, but not most powerful.

Answer 8

It could be wishful thinking, they did elect, and re-elect, a president who believes in the unitary executive theory.  While I don't think that many people voted on that issue, or were even aware of it at all, I do think it's more than coincidence.