How Much Power Does The President Really Have NPRNEAL CONAN, HOST This is TALK OF THE NATION. Im Neal Conan in Washington. Total Annihilation The Core Contingency more. Three weeks from tomorrow, we elect a new president, or re elect the incumbent. His job is routinely described as the most powerful office in the world, and both campaigns frame the decision as a vital choice between two very different visions for Americas future. But the election will not change Americas interests overseas, and when it comes to domestic policy, the man who takes the oath of office next January will find himself hamstrung by debt and a prisoner of Congress. So how much difference does the chief executive actually make We want to hear from you Does who is president matter as much as we tell ourselves it doesEmail us, talknpr. You can also join the conversation on our website. Thats at npr. org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Later in the program, the playboy prince whose country burned in the fires of war and genocide. We remember Cambodias Norodom Sihanou. But first the role and limits of presidential power. Ted Koppels a commentator for NPR News and also special correspondent for NBCs Rock Center with Brian Williams and joins us now from his home in Maryland. Ted, always good to have you on the program. TED KOPPEL, BYLINE And always good to be with you, Neal. Does Walmart Sell Garcinia Cambogia Pills Thc Detox Time Naturally Does Walmart Sell Garcinia Cambogia Pills Body Detox Nashville Tn Beachbody 3 Day Detox. Most domestic TV coverage of the USMNT is frustratingly friendly to the national team, and its rare to hear much cutting criticism, even when the team is playing. Where are the files for a PostgreSQL database stored The. PLAIN TRUTH. About. Malachis Message. And. THAT PROPHET. SCROLL DOWN OR CLICK TOPICS AT LEFT. For past updates, see Whats New at left. NEXT UPDATE. CONAN And we hear from time to time that the big issue in this campaign is jobs, jobs, jobs. Can the president create jobs KOPPEL I think in the final analysis, Neal, we have to concede that what were talking about is power that can be but is not necessarily. In other words, obviously there have been enormously powerful and influential presidents over the years, you think about FDR, you think about Lyndon Johnson, but does a pres necessarily, is it necessarily going to make a huge difference as to which of these two men, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, is going to be elected, in terms of jobs Im not at all sure it does. CONAN Mitt Romney says he promises 1. KOPPEL Yes, he does, and Ive always thought Wouldnt it be a wonderful thing if we could have a truth in advertising law that would be passed in this country so that politicians who make reckless promises during a campaign can in some small fashion be held to it after the electionBut we dont have such a law. CONAN The economy in general is again another way of maybe saying the same thing, but the economy overall is another major issue, that and the deficit. KOPPEL Well, it is a huge issue, but remember, Neal, and I know youre acutely conscious of it, its not just whats going on here in the United States thats going to have an impact on American jobs, its whats happening in China, its whats happening in the Middle East, its what happening in Spain and Greece and Italy and Ireland and all those economies that seem to be on the verge of collapse in Europe. All of those have an impact on jobs in the United States because all of those countries that Ive mentioned are in fact clients of the United States. They buy our products. When they dont buy, we have fewer jobs. CONAN Or in the case of China, we buy theirs. KOPPEL Or we buy theirs. Well, its working both ways, although we buy a lot more of theirs than they buy of ours. But since you mentioned China, Neal, its fascinating to me, politicians, almost always those who are out of office and trying to get in office, do a lot of chest thumping about China in particular and talking about how tough theyre going to get on China. And of course once they get into office, they are reminded of the fact that we owe the Chinese somewhere between one and two trillion dollars. And its very, very tough to get tough with your banker when you owe them that much money. CONAN We want to hear from you, as well. Does it really make all that much difference, or at least as much difference as we sometimes tell ourselves, who gets elected president on November 6 Email us, talknpr. Danielleph is with us calling from Rochester, New York. DANIELLE Hi, thanks, Neal. I think it makes a significant difference whos elected in November, maybe not so much on the economy and jobs as wed like to think, since the president or the office doesnt have as much influence on that as we would hope. But just think about where we were four years ago in regards to the way Americans and America was regarded internationally. We had really bad standing throughout the Bush years, and the election of Barack Obama singlehandedly, in many ways, improved that with the giving of him the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, I think we would be in bad straits, lets say, if we had Mitt Romney in the office, judging by his inability to not insult foreign visitors when hes there. But I think it has a big influence, and Barack Obamas election and the Nobel Peace Prize demonstrate that pretty clearly. CONAN And Ted Koppel, the president certainly less trammeled by Congress on foreign policy than he is on domestic policy. KOPPEL Well, he is, but I must say I disagree with our caller. I think that Nobel Peace Prize was about as premature an honor as you could possibly give, and indeed the president was honest enough to admit it at the time. American Megatrends Sata Drivers. The fact of the matter is Im not at all sure that the world is better off today or that the United States is in a better position with regard to the rest of the world than it was four years ago. Yes, were out of Iraq, but the fact of the matter is because we got out of Iraq as precipitously as we did, Iran today has more influence in Iraq than we do. The fact of the matter is we have a looming, an existing but an existing crisis thats going to get far, far worse in Syria. The situation in Libya, as we just saw, is not as happy a one as perhaps wed like to believe. Im not at all sure that we are doing that much better in foreign policy than we were four years ago. CONAN But Ted, you mentioned Iraq as to argue that it doesnt make much difference who gets elected this time, doesnt that argue wouldnt the same arguments apply to saying it wouldnt have made much difference as to whether George W. Bush or Vice President Gore got elected back in 2. KOPPEL No, no, no, I think you make an excellent point. The fact of the matter is that presidents can, in fact, make huge mistakes, and theres no question that George Bush made an enormous mistake in invading Iraq in the first place. And I think the argument can be made, and I just made a little bit of it, that President Obama has made a fairly huge mistake in pulling out of Iraq as quickly as he did. No, youre right, it can make a huge difference, but in the final analysis, foreign policy is almost guided almost always guided by what is in Americas best national interest. And when people get into the oval office, all of the sudden they discover that their predecessors tended to operate under that same imperative, and they usually find themselves guided by the same instincts as to what does operate in Americas best national interest. CONAN Lets get another caller in. This is excuse me, this is Jimph, and Jims on the line from Cleveland. JIM Yes, thank you very much for taking my call, I appreciate this. CONAN Go ahead. JIM I think it matters an awful lot, especially with the Supreme Court justices. I mean, we have a Supreme Court right now that may roll back 5. American worker, Voting Rights Act, Roe v.