The president's Article II powers are quite extensive, Yet, the Constitution sets almost no qualifications for the office. Olivia identified the constitutional qualifications, age and natural born citizen, and displayed strong insight in speculating why the framers provided so few qualifications for the office. We then looked at the role of the Federal Election Commission in monitoring campaign donations and expenditures and the extraordinary amounts of money spent by presidential candidates. I mentioned how public financing of campaigns remains available if candidates are willing to accept the fund raising limit that accompanies the acceptance of public funds. In today's world, none are. We discussed the president's salary and perks and last, the critical role of the vice-president as the tie breaker if there is a 50/50 vote in the Senate. Olivia provided a good analysis of what qualifications a presidential candidate might want in a vice-president, and, in that regard, we discussed various possible vice presidential picks for Joe Biden and what each might bring to the ticket. For homework, I assigned reading 302-305 and answering study guide questions.