Who was the first President?

Why this is the answer

George Washington, and the surname alone is enough here too. This is one of the questions marked with an asterisk on the 2008 list. If you are 65 or older and have been a permanent resident for 20 years or more, you may study just the starred questions, and this one stays on that shorter list. Washington was elected when the new government was created and took the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City. His first term began in 1789, his second in 1793, and he served until 1797. He worked to form the new nation, urged Americans to unite, and helped define what a president is. Yet the way he left office may be what history remembers best. He stepped down on his own after two terms, and by giving up power voluntarily he set an example for leaders at home and abroad. Presidents kept to that two-term tradition until Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected four times and served from 1933 to 1945. After that, the custom became law. The 22nd Amendment, passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified in 1951, says no person shall be elected President more than twice. It adds that someone who has served more than two years of a term another person was elected to can be elected only once. In the interview, the risk is reaching for another famous founder from this same part of the test. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin both appear in nearby questions, and under pressure either name can slip out, but neither one was the first President. Another slip is hearing "first" and answering with the President in office today; the question is about the beginning, not the present. Since the previous question has the same answer, think of them as a matched pair. A short line covers both: the general who became the first President and then chose to step aside.