“Dark horses”
A big national convention, comprising more than a thousand delegates, cannot be expected to do its work with calm deliberation or to weigh carefully the personal qualifications of all those who seek to be nominated. If there is a prolonged contest between two or three strong candidates, no one of whom can obtain the requisite number of votes in the convention, the delegates in their impatience are likely to turn to a “dark horse”, that is to someone less prominent on whom there is a chance of agreement.[[127]] This has often happened.
The real work of nominating candidates is not done on the floor of the convention. The plans are laid and put into operation by groups of leaders in private conferences, the delegates following these leaders when called upon. And the fact that a candidate possesses “great and striking qualities” does not always commend him to these party leaders. On most occasions they are likely to prefer a man who, if elected, will work in harmony with the party organization rather than take the reins of office wholly into his own hands.[[128]] By various combinations of circumstances, therefore, men of mediocre quality have sometimes been nominated.
The election may turn upon various things.
Narrowness of the People’s Choice.—A nomination by one of the two leading parties is in some cases almost equivalent to election. There are times, of course, when the election turns chiefly upon the merits of the two leading candidates; but more often the result is determined by other factors entirely. Each candidate embodies the strength of his party as well as his own, and each political party is for various reasons stronger in some years than in others. When a party has been in power for a term of years the people usually grow disgruntled with its policy and refuse to support the candidate of that party at the next election no matter how capable he may be. There is every reason to believe that the Democratic candidate was doomed to defeat in 1920 no matter who he might have been. When one political party remains in power for eight or twelve years it makes many enemies; people find fault on one score or another and decide that they will vote for a change. Even a strong candidate in such circumstances has very little hope of winning.
Public opinion is a very fickle thing. It exalts a public man as a hero today and execrates him tomorrow. It is strong for one policy this year and often veers around to something quite different a year or two later. Men are borne into the presidential office on this surging tide, sometimes without much reference to their individual qualifications. They are nominated because they are acceptable to the party leaders, or because they come from some strong and doubtful state, or because they are agreed upon by compromise, or for any one of a dozen other reasons. The capacity of the man is not always, and indeed not usually, the chief factor in determining a presidential nomination.[[129]] Under the circumstances the wonder is that the country has obtained, in the presidential office, such a high general level of personal capacity and character.
Presidential powers:
Powers of the President.—The actual powers of the President are greater than those of any other ruler in the world, whether hereditary or elective. He is the chief engineer of a great mechanism which controls an army, raises several billion dollars a year in taxes, enforces laws, regulates commerce, and employs the full time of more than half a million public officials. Congress makes the laws, it is true; but were it not for the President and those whom he appoints, the laws would not be enforced. Congress decides what taxes shall be levied; but the President and his subordinates collect them. Congress appropriates money out of the treasury; but the executive branch of the government, of which the President is the head, spends the money. The President, in other words, is the nation’s chief executive—he is charged with the duty of executing the laws. This is a large responsibility and a good deal of the work is necessarily entrusted to subordinates whom the President appoints.
1. Appointments.
The appointing power is, then, an important phase of the President’s authority. He names all the higher officials of the Government subject to confirmation by the Senate as has already been explained. He has the power to remove any national official. In the case of minor officials he may, and usually does, depend upon the advice of senators or congressmen both as regards appointments and removals; but in the case of all high officers these things must have the President’s personal attention. Naturally they take a great deal of his time.