It wasn't always a given that we'd have a single executive who has the power to make final decisions about the fate of our country.

Every four years, political frenzy seizes the nation for months building up to the presidential election.

Often lost in the hoopla of the campaign trail, though, is the question of how it all began: Why do we have a president in the first place?

It wasn't always a given that we'd have a single executive who has the power to make final decisions about the fate of our country, historians say. When the Founding Fathers met to design the constitution, in fact, many were skeptical about appointing a chief.