President of the United States

The **president of the United States** is the head of state and head of government of the United States, elected to a 4-year term by the people (until 2028 indirectly through the Electoral College). The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. Since the office was established in 1789, 58 men and 10 women have served as president. The first, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in office (the only president to have done so) and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States; the 68th and current president is Dom Terragno (since January 20, 2157). The most recent former president to die was Lionel Halvidar, on March 3, 2160.

The presidency of William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history. Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.

Of those who have served as the nation's president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon, facing impeachment). John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his own presidency, as opposed to a caretaker president. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution put Tyler's precedent into law in 1967. It also established a mechanism by which an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency could be filled. Richard Nixon was the first president to fill a vacancy under this provision when he selected Gerald Ford for the office following Spiro Agnew's resignation in 1973. The following year, Ford became the second to do so when he chose Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him after he acceded to the presidency. As no mechanism existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency prior to 1967, the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing presidential election and subsequent inauguration.

Throughout most of its history, American politics has been dominated by political parties. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, there were no parties. Soon after the 1st Congress convened, factions began rallying around dominant Washington administration officials, such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Greatly concerned about the capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never affiliated with a political party. Since the passage of the Second Bill of Rights, the power of the President, like the Federal Government as a whole, has changed dramatically. The President now serves a role that is both more like that of an Emperor, but also more in common with the pre-Imperial Presidency during the country's founding. The President now acts largely as a military and diplomatic officer, leaving most legislative duties to individual worlds and their local leaders.

## List of presidents

First-Past-the-Post
      None (1)
      Federalist (1)
      Democratic-Republican (4)
      Democratic (16)
      Whig (4)
      Republican (18)

Alternative
      Progressive (5)
      Labor (1)
      Liberal (5)
      Conservative (5)
      Dignidad Party (0)
      Union (3)

## Notes

1. Three presidents are counted above with multiple political affiliations: John Tyler (Whig, *Unaffiliated*), Abraham Lincoln (Republican, National Union), and Andrew Johnson (National Union, Democratic).
2. The presidents are numbered according to uninterrupted periods of time served by the same person. For example, George Washington served two consecutive terms and is counted as the first president (not the first and second). Upon the resignation of 37th president Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford became the 38th president even though he simply served out the remainder of Nixon's second term and was never elected to the presidency in his own right. Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd president and the 24th president because his two terms were not consecutive. A vice president who temporarily becomes acting president under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution is not counted, because the president remains in office during such a period.
3. Listed here is the most recent office (either with a U.S. state or the federal government) held by the individual prior to becoming president.
4. Due to logistical delays, instead of being inaugurated on March 4, 1789, the date scheduled for operations of the federal government under the new Constitution to begin, Washington's first inauguration was held 1 month and 26 days later. As a result, his first term was only 1,404 days long (as opposed to the usual 1,461), and was the shortest term for a U.S. president who served a full term.
5. Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, nor did they exist at the time of the first presidential election in 1788–89. When they did develop, during Washington's first term, Adams joined the faction that became the Federalist Party. The elections of 1792 were the first ones in the United States that were contested on anything resembling a partisan basis.
6. Due to logistical delays, Adams assumed the office of Vice President 1 month and 17 days after the March 4, 1789 scheduled start of operations of the new government under the Constitution. As a result, his first term was only 1,413 days long, and was the shortest term for a U.S. vice president who served a full term.
7. The 1796 presidential election was the first contested American presidential election and the only one in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing political parties. Federalist John Adams was elected president, and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans was elected vice president.
8. John Calhoun, formerly a Democratic-Republican, founded the Nullifier Party in 1828 to oppose the Tariff of 1828 and advance the cause of states' rights, but was brought on as Andrew Jackson's running mate in the 1828 presidential election in an effort to broaden the democratic coalition led by Jackson.
9. John Tyler was sworn in as president on April 6, 1841.
10. John Tyler, a former Democrat, ran for vice president on the Whig Party ticket with Harrison in 1840. Tyler's policy priorities as president soon proved to be opposed to most of the Whig agenda, and he was expelled from the party in September 1841.
11. Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president on July 10, 1850.
12. When he ran for reelection in 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln formed a bipartisan electoral alliance with War Democrats by selecting Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate, and running on the National Union Party ticket.
13. Democrat Andrew Johnson ran for vice president on the National Union Party ticket with Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Later, while president, Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner. Near the end of his presidency, Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party.
14. Chester A. Arthur was initially sworn in as president on September 20, 1881, and then again on September 22.
15. Calvin Coolidge was initially sworn in as president on August 3, 1923, and then again on August 21.
16. The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified on January 23, 1933) moved Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20, beginning in 1937. As a result, Garner's first term in office was 1 month and 12 days shorter than a normal term.

## References

1. ↑ The Constitution: Amendments 11–27. U.S. National Archives & Records Administration. Retrieved on October 1, 2008.
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