The “third term” myth of the American Presidency

The Biden administration inherits some legacies of President Obama. But it is not Obama’s third term

President Joe Biden, as former vice president of Barack Obama, signed 17 Executive Orders on his first day in office, which overturned Trump’s orders such as “The U.S. Exit of WHO” and reinstated Obama’s policies like DACA and the Paris Agreement. The immediate moves of the new White House appear to be a return of the Obama era, as Biden has promised to build upon Obama’s policies during his 2020 presidential campaigns.

However, the “third term” myth that “the new president continues the policies of the former President’s he or she has served for,” is neither a constitutional obligation nor an American tradition.

Partisanship is not always the case for Presidency

In history, 15 former vice presidents became president of the United States. However, not every one of them was with the same political party of the predecessors they served. The Constitution, written by the Founding Fathers in the founding era, did not mention political parties. Before 1800,

“Presidential electors were required to vote for two people for the offices of president and vice-president. The individual receiving the highest number of votes would become president and the individual receiving the second-highest number of votes would become vice president.”