American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

314 CHAPTER 10|THE PRESIDENCY

CABINET POSITIONS

The president’s Cabinet is composed of the heads of the 15 executive departments along with

other appointees given cabinet rank by the president.

Secretary of Agriculture Secretary of the Treasury

Secretary of Commerce Secretary of Transportation

Secretary of Defense Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Secretary of Education Vice President

Secretary of Energy White House Chief of Staff

Secretary of Health and Human Services Attorney General

Secretary of Homeland Security Head of the Environmental Protection Agency

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Head of the Offi ce of Management and Budget

Secretary of the Interior Head of the Offi ce of National Drug Control Policy

Secretary of Labor United States Trade Representative

Secretary of State

NUTSNUTS & bolts & bolts

10.4

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC

AND THE PRESIDENT

As we have described, presidents need to cultivate public support to get re-elected

and to enact their policy proposals. Thus, to understand the kinds of policy goals

presidents set and how they seek to come across to the public, it is important to

consider what Americans want from their presidents and which characteristics

they associate with a successful president.

Table 10.1 shows survey results about the qualities Americans want in a president.

Large majorities want the president to have good judgment and to be ethical and com-

passionate; smaller majorities want a president who says what he believes, holds con-

sistent positions, and is forceful and decisive. A third or fewer want the president to

be willing to compromise, to have political experience and savvy, to have Washington

experience, or to be loyal to his party. Relatively few Americans consider military expe-

rience an important presidential asset.

Various factors shape presidential popularity. In general, any issue that is at

the top of the public’s list of most important problems is likely to be refl ected in

presidential popularity. For example, the slow decline in public support for the

war in Iraq, and the increase in the number of people who saw the war as the most

important problem, was refl ected in a systematic decline in then-president Bush’s

popularity in 2006 and 2007. By the time the war dropped from the top of the most

important problem list, it was replaced by the economy, which did not help Bush’s

approval ratings because most people were dissatisfi ed with economic conditions

and blamed it on Bush’s administration. The slow recovery from poor economic

EXPLAIN HOW AMERICANS

EVALUATE PRESIDENTS