Video: A Presidents Day History Lesson

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STARKVILLE, Miss.(WCBI)–The celebration of presidential leaders and their office dates back to the 1800’s after the death of George Washington who presided over the first constitutional convention. A lot has changed since then.

By the year 1971 Presidents Day had become a celebration observed on the third Monday of every February.

“Although presidents day celebrates all presidents, most people don’t know that so fortunately we mainly focus on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And you’ll see sales from businesses and you’ll see children doing remembrances in schools,” said Brother Rogers/MSU Presidential Expert.

Whats happening with the office of the president is being heard and seen in newspaper headlines and on major radio and television networks.

“People want to know what is President Obama doing. What are the republicans doing to replace President Obama with their candidate. What are the democrats doing in their debates. So if you look at the news today, the presidency dominates the news,” said Brother Rogers.

That being said, some believe the office does not seem to be as respected as in prior decades. Rogers believes, that under two past presidents there were two events that forever changed things. The Vietnam War and Watergate.

“And that was when Lyndon Johnson and President Richard Nixon presided over the office and ever since those two historical events a little bit of the luster has come off the presidency in the sense that people don’t always trust what the president says,” said Brother Rogers.

While the office and the commander in chief wields a lot of power, there are checks and balances placed in the constitution by our founding fathers.

“A president has a lot of power to set the agenda, to control what people are talking about, to make proposals to congress. It has a massive bureaucracy to try to implement his priorities,” said Brother Rogers.

During this presidential election season, we Americans are once again holding our breathe, to see who is next to occupy the White House as the 45th commander-in-chief.