text: There’s really no need to go into the growth of executive power in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Everyone who’s paid attention to politics and history realizes the president has become the central focus of American political life. The parties battle at the state and district level for senate and House seats, but these elections are “only” for control of part of the legislative branch. They have power, but it isn’t like the modern president’s authority.
  Article II, Section II of the Constitution reads, “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.