of five American presidential elections that had coattail effects: Harry Truman in 1948, Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Barack Obama in 2008. In the French Fifth Republic Since the office of President of France was re-established under the Third Republic, the presidential term ran for seven years. While the Presidents of the Third and Fourth republics were ceremonial figureheads, the Fifth Republic's constitution brought together a president with considerable executive powers and a prime minister, responsible before Parliament. The president's task was primarily to end deadlock and act decisively to avoid the stagnation prevalent under the French Fourth Republic; the prime minister, similarly, was to "direct the work of government", providing a strong leadership to the legislative branch and to help overcome partisan squabbles. Since 1962, French presidents have been elected by popular vote, replacing the electoral college, which was only used once. This change was intended to give Fifth Republic presidents more power than they might have had under the original constitution. While still seen as the symbol and embodiment of the nation, the president also was given a popular mandate. Of course, the majority party of the National Assembly retained power as well, but since the popularly elected president appointed the prime minister (subject to the approval of the National Assembly), the former was seen as having the upper hand in any conflict between executive and legislature. Furthermore, the imbalance is further illustrated by the fact that the president can dissolve the Assembly at any time (but not more than once in a year), whereas the legislature has no powers of removal against the president. However, even after direct presidential elections were introduced, the presidential term remained at seven years, while the National Assembly's term ran for five. The term imbalance could not guarantee that the President's preferred Prime Minister would enjoy a parliamentary majority, and a risk of cohabitation - a situation of divided government where ideological rivals hold the Presidency and the Premiership - loomed. For this reason, a constitutional amendment to shorten the presidential term to five years was adopted in 2000. After the 2000 amendment, Presidential and national assembly elections were merely two months apart. This resulted in a noticeable coattail effect, where the President's party gains a majority in the National Assembly, even in 2002 (where the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, favored to win in