Your analogy with the Queen vs. the Prime Minister is almost correct.  The Prime Minister of Britain also is the "head of state", since the Queen is simply a symbolic figure with no power at all.

The true distinction can be found in those countries which have both a Prime Minister and a President.  You can observe in those situations that the parliament continually tinkers with the relative powers of those two offices, either to strengthen the Presidency in order to threaten the Prime Minister, or to weaken the Presidency in favor of the Prime Minister.  Either way, that situation leads to much instability and unpredictability -- not a good thing if you're looking for a place to invest your money.

Anyway, I think you've proposed a spectacularly bad idea.  Hillary and Barack need to be at opposite ends of Pennsylvania Avenue:

1) So they don't kill each other,
2) Keeping each other honest, and
3) Making sure that whichever is President doesn't become too powerful.

It is not guaranteed that the Democratic wimps who are in Congress right now can accomplish nos. 2 and 3.

by Juarez Traveller on 02/10/2008 02:26:32 PM EST