What is it, exactly, a president does?

As you know from civics class, the president isn’t in the law-passing business; his main job is to turn laws into reality. But a chief executive can have an imprint on legislation both through his veto-wielding power and, if he has a lot of political capital in the bag, by either shepherding his party or negotiating with the opposition to make some legislative waves (witness Welfare Reform and No Child Left Behind).

Any environmentalist will also glumly tell you that the prez has the power to nudge policy through regulation and enforcement (or non-regulation and non-enforcement), while a pro-life advocate won’t let you forget that perhaps the president’s biggest role is in appointing justices to our highest court.

All in all on the domestic front, though, a president only has so much say on what happens in our day to day lives. When it comes to foreign policy, well, that’s a world apart: the commander in chief reigns supreme (in spite of that little constitutional clause about Congress declaring war).