The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition. The President leads the executive branch of the federal government and is one of only two elected members of the executive branch (the other being the Vice President of the United States).

Among other powers and responsibilities, Article II of the U.S. Constitution charges the President to "faithfully execute" federal law, makes the President commander-in-chief of the armed forces, allows the President to nominate executive and judicial officers with the advice and consent of the Senate, and allows the President to grant pardons or reprieves.

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-three individuals have been elected or succeeded to the office of President, serving a total of fifty-six four-year terms. 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. As of January 20, 2009, Barack Obama is the forty-fourth President. The president's annual salary is $400,000.

Prior to the adoption of the Constitution, there were 16 men who were President of the Continental Congress, a largely ceremonial office.

Origin

The Standard of the President of the United States In 1783, the Treaty of Paris left the United States independent and at peace, but with an unsettled governmental structure. The Second Continental Congress had drawn up the Articles of Confederation in 1777, describing a permanent confederation, but granting to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions were enforced. In part, this reflected the anti-monarchy view of the Revolutionary period and the new American system was explicitly designed to prevent the rise of an American tyrant to replace the British King.

However, during the economic depression due to the collapse of the continental dollar following the American Revolution, the viability of the American government was threatened by political unrest in several states, efforts by debtors to use popular government to erase their debts, and the apparent inability of the Continental Congress to redeem the public obligations incurred during the war. The Congress also appeared unable to become a forum for productive cooperation among the States encouraging commerce and economic development. In response a Constitutional Convention was convened, ostensibly to reform the Articles of Confederation, but that subsequently began to draft a new system of government that would include greater executive power while retaining the checks and balances thought to be essential restraints on any imperial tendency in the office of the President.