In modern US Government textbooks, "Chief of Party" is
typically given as one of the "hats" that a president wears. However, I would say that
George Washington largely did not carry out this role. That is because there really
were no political parties as such when Washington was president. We would say Pres.
Obama is the head of the Democratic Party because one of his jobs is to lead his party
and to try to get it to win in its competition with the Republicans. But Washington
really did not have a similar situation.
When Washington
was president, there were no official political parties. In fact, members of his
cabinet (Jefferson and Hamilton) would later form the first two parties in US history.
This shows that Washington was clearly not acting as party leader -- he had people who
would later be from different parties right there on his own
team.
It was only after Washington left offices that
parties formed so could not act as a Chief of Party the way that modern presidents
do.
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