Talk:President

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[edit] lists

I acted unilaterally on the renaming of the lists of presidents, which were scattered about willy-nilly. Articles that consist of a List of Presidents of XXX are located appropriately, while articles which consist of prose-styled information are located at President of XXX. If the article has both, I have mostly done nothing more than made a redirect from List of Presidents of XXX. In the case of President of Ireland, though, the article was rather long and include info on Irish elections which already stated the winner, so I moved the nicely done list of just victors to List of Presidents of Ireland. In the case of President of India, I did not make a redirect from List of Presidents of India because the article had no such list (though it should). Tuf-Kat

And I separated the links to the articles on the office and lists, which means that List of Presidents of Germany is listed above the page it redirects to, President of Germany. I did this deliberately because there is a list at President of Germany and someone may be looking for it and not feel adventurous enough to look at President of Germany, plus the list may be separated out at some point in the future. If no one complains, something similar could maybe be done for Prime Ministers. Tuf-Kat
Nice work! Actually, I have just separated the two at Prime Minister and included details about the specific lists in a short table. Currently, we are discussing merging them back at Talk:Prime Minister .. Docu 17:41 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] pictures

Who picked Teddy Roosevelt for the top of the page? Seems like a very arbitrary (albeit non-controversial) choice. If I get motivated, I'll replace it with George Washington -- a much better choice given the historical precendents (pun intended) he set. Other comments before I proceed? tbc 20:12, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)

The point about the use is not to use too controversial a choice, because if too controversial a choice of American president risks starting a hey, what about . . . edit war as people read an American bias into the picture choice. Roosevelt is sufficiently well known to be recognised but not so symbolic of the US as to annoy non-Americans. GW Bush, Kennedy, Washington, etc are too big in reputation not to create an instant impression visually that the article is americo-centric. Roosevelt is a middle ranking relatively neutral choice. It is also an extremely good picture. The second picture, Mary McAleese, is of a woman who is currently head of state, so covers two criteria not covered by Roosevelt. And de Gaulle is someone who not merely was a president but created a presidency and wrote a constitution. So the three images have three different relevances to the concept of a president. FearÉIREANN 21:18, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)

(Replacing the picture of Teddy Roosevelt...) Since this is the top of a generic "President" page, it's better to include one of the top three popular and widely known US presidents - such as FDR. --Joy [shallot], 02:27, 18 August 2005

(Replacing the picture of Mary McAleese with Rajendra Prasad...) Used the picture of a 12-year, initial president of one of the largest countries. Another candidate that is better than current person is perhaps Richard von Weizsäcker. --Joy [shallot], 15:57, 5 September 2005

To Jtdirl: I agree that the more recent US presidents are likely to be considered too volatile for inclusion here, but then we must apply the same criterion on other countries' presidents, too, esp. in countries with other types of systems (i.e., it's confusing to apply a different selection standard for a different system). I also don't think that gender should be considered a defining quality of a president - at least not any more defining than their political work. --Joy [shallot] 13:21, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

How about using a photo of Tarja Halonen (the famous President of Finland) at the top of the page? It might be good to show an example of "alternative" 21th century president. Any objections? --80.186.4.246 04:08, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

As everyone has been saying, it isn't exactly right to put up a famous president. So, I wouldn't. Maybe the picture doesn't have to be a photograph of any president? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.177.111.152 (talk) 01:47, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Non-governmental presidents

We need more on non-governmental presidents, for example - What does a company president do? What does a University President do - are they like a Chancellor or a Vice-Chancellor?

[edit] Presidents of British Commonwealth-associated countries.

I see that you have forgotten to add in the following lists;

  • List of Presidents of Bophuthatswana
  • List of Presidents of Ciskei
  • List of Presidents of the Orange Free State
  • List of Presidents of the South African Republic
  • List of Presidents of Venda

When are you going to add in these to the Presidential Chronologies list? These places are (or were) republics in their own right. - (Aidan Work 01:47, 21 December 2005 (UTC))

I've added Dominica to the list, and have also added South Africa before Mandela (as the difference between "State President" and "President" is purely semantic), but the rest probably shouldn't be in the listing of "Presidential chronologies", as that listing only contains existing and/or recognised countries. Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and Venda were all Bantustans, i.e. they were never recognised by any other country than South Africa (and were never members of the Commonwealth) and they also no longer exist (except as regions within South Africa). Regarding the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, these countries no longer exist, and Somaliland has not yet been recognised by any other country. To make the limitations of the listing more obvious, I've modified the title to "Presidential chronologies of existing, recognised countries".
However, both "Presidential chronologies" and "Specific information" below it need a clean-up, as they both often link to the same articles. Thomas Blomberg 17:02, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Note: it has not been the "British" Commonwealth since 1946. Hu 03:13, 20 February 2006 (UTC) Brees AH-MAZING!! kick-a! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.185.95.251 (talk) 19:26, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cross Correlation

For US Presidents descended from Other major global figures or Countries see- Jesus's Presidents ISBN 0595333001, Mohammed's US Presidents ISBN 059537901X, China's US Presidents ISBN 0595377092,India's US Presidents ISBN 0595379001,The Bush Family ISBN 0595332692 (descend from Mid East,Europe, etc)

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.192.7.106 (talk) 21:39, 15 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] 1st Internationally recognised President

In the article it says "The first internationally recognized president was the President of the United States of America". As the definition of President is given as "a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, universities, and countries" surely this is wrong. The first internationally recognised President I can thnk of is William Brouncker, the first President of the Royal Society as that body (& therefore its president) was recognised internationally & carried out correspondence with individuals & government sponsored bodies throughout Europe (such as Accademia dei Lincei & Académie française). AllanHainey 11:48, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I've now changed this in the article. AllanHainey 11:44, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

"Praeses"? Isn't it just the latin verb "praesedere", to preside? Stevage 15:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] attention needed

There are two sections named Presidential systems which talk about different things. need someone to chage that .SYSS Mouse 23:49, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I have changed this to clarify.

[edit] General edit

there was a call to improve the text. I've edited the main sections on history and types of presidency just to make a little clearer. I haven't really changed any of the basic info. Also some typos corrected to the rest and a cut to the Latter day Saints section which strayed off the point a little.

[edit] Presidents of non-independent countries

Where is the list of the presidents of non-independent countries? Catalonia, for example, have Presidents since XIV century. I'm sure that exist other presidents of countries that aren't reconocited for the international comunity

[edit] List of Presidents of Namibia

This list has been omitted. - (192.190.108.19 07:40, 17 November 2006 (UTC))

Done.--Damifb 21:59, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Call to watch for Vandalism

This page had the name "Charlie Murphy" posted numerous times within one of the early sections of the article. From reading some of the history of this page, it appears that this is not the first time the page has been vandalised. Maybe the page should be locked from editing if this continues.

RaiderTarheel 19:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Pay

Can somebody find out how much do presidents get paid? Because i've heard they get almost nothing, but all their expenses are paid for. But other sources say they get about 200k a year. I'm talking about european/american/russian presidents, not dictators or something :P

From 1969-2001, US Presidents were paid $200,000/year. This was bumped up to $400,000/year in 2001 (Incidentally, as of 2003, Vice-Presidents get $198,600/year).[1] And you are correct, their expenses (housing, transportation, food, utilities, etc.) are paid-for by taxpayers. -Rhrad 20:06, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

But the presidents get as much of that to keep as they want because A. they don't have to pay taxes B. they get all their bills, service, foods, and other things paid for by taxes so essentially all that money is theirs to keep and spend on new cars.

[edit] President of the United States

Amazing how there doesn't seem to be a single link on this page to the most important guy we refer to as a president; the President of the United States. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.187.219.134 (talk) 20:21, 2 November 2007 (UTC) Lexi Echelman —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.124.107.107 (talk) 20:18, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Republic or Democracy?

The United States of America is a Republic. Why is The U.S. refered to under the Democracy section? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.104.48.200 (talk) 08:47, 23 February 2008 (UTC)