Forty-third president of the United States; former governor of Texas
(1994-2000). Born July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. Bush — often
referred to as simply "W" — is the eldest son of former President George
Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. He grew up in Midland,
Texas, where his father worked in the oil business. His siblings include
Jeb (now governor of Florida), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Another
younger sister, Robin, died tragically of leukemia in 1953 at the age of
three. Like his father, Bush attended the prestigious Philips Andover
Academy in Massachusetts before matriculating at Yale University. He
graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in 1968, then returned to
Texas and joined the Texas Air National Guard, where he learned to fly
fighter jets. He eventually became a lieutenant, but was never called on
to fight in Vietnam.
The early 1970s marked a distinctly unfocused period in Bush's life, as
he moved back to East Texas and worked intermittently as a management
trainee at an agricultural firm and on U.S. Senate campaigns in Florida
and Alabama. (In response to questions from reporters about possible
drug use and heavy drinking during his bachelor days in Midland, Bush
has called the early 1970s his "nomadic" period and has somewhat
evasively stated that he would pass a background check going back as far
as 1974.) In 1972, Bush entered Harvard Business School, earning his
M.B.A. in 1975.
Still following in the footsteps of his father, Bush decided to try his
hand in the oil business. He returned to Midland and formed an
independent oil and gas exploration company that he called Arbusto (the
Spanish word for "bush"). He married Laura Welch, a former teacher and
librarian, in 1977. In 1981, she gave birth to twin daughters, Barbara
and Jenna.
In the midst of his business ventures, Bush joined the 1978 race for the
U.S. House of Representatives. After a tough victory in the primaries,
Bush ran in the general election against Democratic State Senator Kent
Hance. He displayed prodigious fundraising capabilities, setting a new
Texas record for a House candidate. In the end, however, he lost to
Hance by six percentage points.
As the declining oil prices of the early 1980s took their toll on his
company (by now renamed Bush Exploration), Bush accepted an offer to
merge with an oil-investing fund called Spectrum 7, and became a
chairman of the resulting corporation. In 1986, after a sudden collapse
in the price of oil, Bush arranged for Spectrum to be sold to Harken
Energy for a bargain price. He later sold his original stock shares and
made a considerable profit.
Shortly after his 40th birthday in July 1986, the sometimes-wayward Bush
reached a turning point in his personal and professional life. He quit
drinking altogether and became more religious, turning to his wife’s
Methodist faith (his family is Episcopalian). He also became noticeably
more serious and driven professionally, a change many pegged to his
father’s decision to run for president in 1988. Drawn by the challenge
of national politics, Bush moved with his family to Washington, D.C., in
the fall of 1987 to work on the elder George Bush's successful
campaign. Though George W. Bush had no official title on the campaign
staff, he was his father's most trusted confidant and a major point of
contact for his colleagues. He also became known as a talented speaker
and as the campaign's chief liaison to Christian conservatives.
Shortly after the election in November 1988, the younger Bush moved back
to Texas, this time to Dallas, where he organized a group of wealthy
investors (including himself) and arranged the purchase of the Texas
Rangers professional baseball team. As the team's managing partner, Bush
became a fixture in the stands at the Rangers' home games and earned a
name for himself in Texas aside from his family's impressive legacy. (He
also earned a good deal of money — after an initial outlay of only
$606,000, Bush walked away with nearly $15 million when the team was
sold in 1998.)
Despite his success with the Rangers, Bush shocked everyone — including
his family — when he was elected governor of Texas in 1994, defeating
the popular incumbent, Democrat Ann W. Richards, by 350,000 votes.
Showing enviable composure and focus during the campaign, Bush triumphed
on a platform including increased local control of schools and welfare
reform. During his first legislative session in 1995, Bush achieved most
of his goals, including important steps towards tort reform—or limiting
the ability of plaintiffs to bring lawsuits, which especially appealed
to Texas's big business interests. His affable nature and ability to
appeal personally to nearly everyone across party lines made him the
most popular big-state governor in the country by the end of his first
year—even the Democrat-controlled legislature found him agreeable to
work with.
In 1997, Bush backed a huge tax reform plan that would have lowered
property taxes by a staggering $3 billion per year, among other cuts. It
was a great political risk that would please neither conservatives nor
liberals — his fellow Republicans in the state legislature defeated the
bill. In the end, however, taxes were cut by $1 billion from reforms
made from the remnants of his plan, and Bush emerged from the failure
relatively intact. In November 1998, Bush became the first Texas
Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms, winning by an
impressive margin of 65% to 35% and drawing a record number of black and
Hispanic voters to the Republican ticket. His success in Texas,
especially among minority voters, peaked the interest of the Republican
Party’s national organization, which saw the younger Bush as a viable
choice to challenge the incumbent Democrats and their anointed
candidate, Vice President Al Gore, at the national level.
In June of 1999, George W. Bush officially announced his intention to
run for president of the United States, billing himself as a
"compassionate conservative." Basing his campaign on promises to make
the Republican Party more inclusive and to restore dignity to what
Republicans saw as a tarnished White House, Bush placed a strong
emphasis on his desire to improve education — his most passionately felt
cause — and his commitment to limited government and welfare and tax
reform. Critics pointed to his relative inexperience in politics and his
focus on protecting only wealthy individuals and big business
interests, while supporters saw him as a much-needed dose of
good-natured Middle American reality for the often-nasty realm of
Washington politics. Liberals who scoffed at the "compassionate" nature
of Bush's conservatism point to the Texas governor’s support of the
current death penalty system (which they saw as deeply flawed), his
anti-abortion stance, and his opposition to hate-crime legislation that
would protect homosexuals.
Despite a few early blunders — including his failure to identify several
world leaders when asked by a reporter and a primary campaign visit to
Bob Jones University, an institution known for its anti-Catholic views —
and an unexpectedly strong challenge from Senator John McCain, Bush
emerged triumphant on "Super Tuesday" in early March 2000, winning both
New York and California among other states. His success forced McCain to
suspend his campaign indefinitely (he later formally endorsed Bush).
In July 2000, Bush announced his choice of running mate: Richard B.
Cheney, a former congressman from Wyoming who served as defense
secretary under Bush's father. Bush and Cheney were formally nominated
at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia on August 2.
Their battle for the White House against Gore and his running mate,
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, was one of the closest and most
disputed presidential elections in the country's history.
On election night, November 7, it all came down to the state of Florida
and its 25 electoral votes. With a razor-thin lead in the state (though
he trailed Gore in the popular vote), Bush was first declared the winner
by the news networks, and Gore called to concede the election. Hours
later, the final count in Florida looked too close to call, and Gore
rescinded his concession as the recounts began. After five weeks of
complicated legal battles that stretched all the way to the highest
court in the land, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stop the
recounts in Florida, effectively declaring Bush the winner of the state
by a margin of 537 votes. On December 13, one day after this decision,
Gore ended his campaign and congratulated Bush on his victory, as both
men urged the nation to try to put partisan differences aside in the
wake of the extraordinary election. In his first address as
president-elect, Bush continued to stress bipartisanship, a central
theme of his campaign, and promised to be the leader of "one nation,"
not "one party."
George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United
States on January 20, 2001. Since taking office, his Administration has
been marked by the political success of his campaign to cut taxes, the
waning of the economic boom and corporate corruption. Following the
terrorist attacks of September 11th, Bush declared a war against terror
marking the rise of a unilateral and muscular approach to U.S. foreign
policy.
In 2002, after a lapse of four years, the U.N. resumed weapons
inspections in Iraq, warning "serious consequences" if Saddam Hussein
failed to offer inspectors unrestricted access. But almost immediately
after the U.N. resolution was passed, diplomats started disagreed on
whether the use of force was justified if Iraq didn't comply. In March
2003, after months of debate, the United States and Britain led the war
on Iraq without the support of the U.N. Security Council. After four
weeks, coalition ground and air forces surrounded and captured Baghdad,
and the Pentagon declared that major combat in Iraq was over.
On December 13, 2003, acting on a tip, U.S. forces captured Hussein, who
was hiding in a hole in the ground at a farmhouse outside of Tikrit.
Upon capture, President Bush declared "a dark and painful era" over in
Iraq.
In November 2004, Bush won a second term as President of the United
States after a victory over Masschusettes Senator John Kerry. Though the
campaign leading up to the election was often bitter and divisive, Bush
claimed a more decisive win than in 2000.
Bush’s second term has received harsh criticism, particularly with
regard to his handling of the War in Iraq and the domestic economy.
According to Gallup polls, his domestic approval rating plummeted to 26
percent in June 2007, the lowest for any sitting president in 35 years.
Bush’s second term has received harsh criticism, particularly with
regard to his handling of the War in Iraq and the domestic economy.
According to Gallup polls, his domestic approval rating plummeted to 26
percent in June 2007, the lowest for any sitting president in 35 years.
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