Why do Americans pretend the President has so much authority?

You are EXACTLY right. Bush bashing is a bandwagon that people like to jump on without knowing or remembering who actually runs the country.

You obviously have not been paying attention to what is going on for about the past 20 years. It is one thing to get knowledge from a book & quite another from life. Congress has control only over the money. And when push comes to shove, even that control is flimsy when the President just shuts down the government when the funds run out. It worked great for Clinton in his budget wars with Congress. And Bush has grabbed probably more power than any man ever in the US govt. You can do a lot of damage with Executive orders. Especially when you shovel them out faster than Congress or the courts can address them.

The system is broken, & it will take a long time & probably drastic action to correct it.

Is there someone else that has more? Whom? Or is it that you're saying "people think the President can do everything." Certainly in this country, and while under some sense of public and political scrutiny I don't think there's anyone with more direct power over a Nations matters than the President; and it's looking like that is not such a good idea as of recent developments. Why don't you ask the question you really want to ask?

He appointed many formative members of government like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, etc. He and the aformentioned came up with the war in Iraq which has cost our country billions not to mention thousands of lives.

I think he has less authority now that Democrats are the majority in Congress & Senate, but before that he had way way too much and used fear and threats to help maintain the authority he did have. We didn't have to pretend at anything, he was scarily in control of our country until this last election.

well, I would say being the commander and chief of the US military gives you about as much power as you can have. If you are talking political power, making laws, etc. You are correct. Our founders set it up that so that the president could not have enough power to make himself a king or dictator. executive, judicial, legislative branches. Seperation of power.

As far as blaming the pres, he has to sign it into law or veto it. But you are correct, it is the senate and congress that pass the legislation, they sould have the majority of the blame for things that go wrong. One thing you can blame on the pres is foreign policy.

I think the balance of power really has shifted to some extent, with the heavy usage of "signing statements". Bush clearly ignored the will of Congress with regards to illegal wiretapping of US citizens, and of torture, to name two of the worst.

That being said, there is a LOT Congress could have done, like refuse to provide funding for the war; and giving Gates (who ARMED Hussein for Bush's daddy) a rubber stamp as SECDEF; I do not hold them blameless at all!

Most of them really do not know how the government is supposed to operate and just how the much authority any one branch of it actually has.

What planet did you come from? you think that having the power to give the order to (FIRE AWAY) or whatever to fire a nuke , is Pretending to have authority???? just to mention a small guess!

THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT HE HAS IMMEDIATE SAY SO OVER RIGHT NOW CRISES....WHEN CONSULTING A LARGE BODY TAKES TOO MUCH TIME & WE WOULD BE DEAD IN NO TIME....HE'S 1/3 OF THE GOVERMENT----JUST ONE MAN---MANY TIMES IT'S NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO PASS CERTAIN BILLS OVER HIS PROPOSED VETO...IF THAT AIN'T POWER WHAT IS ????????

he does