Looking for a leader

As many of you know, well most of you know, The United States is now in it's process to find a new President (just in case you were hiding under a rock). This time, the campaigns began a lot sooner than expected. On the path to show he or she is the right person for the top job, A job by the way that doesn't really pay well for a CEO, and has a lot of headaches. When this position originally opened, it was more of a figure head. Some of the founders didn't even want the position (like Ben Franklin), but now after 232.5 years this job has become pretty important. Today the position has the unofficial title of "The most powerful man/woman in the world" since the US is the largest superpower.
The question which I want to pose is what is the purpose of the office? Today some might say the office has the power to make people rich, provide food for the hungry of the world, cure Aids, Cancer, Drug abuse, maybe even RLS. The President can make war, and end war, and can even make peace. But what can the president actually do?

• can spend or not spend money, given to him by congress.
• can approve laws, or veto bills.
• can appoint Judges to the Supreme court, and other federal courts.
• gives guidance to the offices which report to his office.
• negotiates treaties
• and many more duties

Now with all this power comes the responsibility to do what is important to the American people, but what do the people think in general the president will do for them? Some think that this person elected will solve all the problems, when in reality it isn't one person who can make any decision, it takes the entire congress, courts and executive branch to make it work. So, when we vote for a person, we are voting more for the ideas of that person than the person in general.