George W. Bush
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George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is, since January 20, 2001, the 43rd President of the United States. Immediately before becoming President, he was Governor of the State of Texas.
Bush is the second U.S. President to be the son of a President. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, was the 41st President of the United States. The first, John Quincy Adams, was the son of John Adams.
Bush was the winner of one of the closest elections in American history, defeating Democratic Vice President Al Gore by only five electoral votes (see U.S. presidential election, 2000) while receiving fewer popular votes (which last happened in 1888). The election results were hotly contested by Gore for several weeks and are still disputed by some critics of the election.
Personal Life and Education
Bush was born in Connecticut and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He has four younger siblings: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. A younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, at the age of three.
He followed his father and grandfather in education at Phillips Academy and Yale University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and where he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon and the Skull and Bones Society. He then received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. He is the first president with an MBA degree.
Bush enrolled in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and served as an F-102 pilot for a period until he was grounded after failing to appear for a mandatory physical exam and drug test. Controversy exists over whether he broke the law by going Absent Without Leave (AWOL). Bush insists that he did serve as a pilot during his entire tour of duty. However, no documents confirming this have been made available.
He had serious problems with alcohol for years after college, including a drunk driving arrest in Maine in 1976. Allegations of past cocaine use have been widely circulated. Bush himself has refused to comment on any past history of drug use.
Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and in 1986, he forswore alcohol and became a born-again Christian, converting from Episcopalian Christianity to his wife's religion, Methodism. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna.
Political Family
Main article: Bush Political Family
Business and Political Career
Bush began his career in the oil industry in 1975 when he formed the oil and gas exploration company Arbusto Energy and continued working in the energy industry until 1986. His forays into the industry were disastrous, losing millions of dollars.
In 1978 Bush ran for the House of Representatives and was defeated by the Democratic State Senator Kent Hance.
After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he assembled a group of partners from his father's close friends and purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.
Bush was involved in controversial stock trades while serving on the board of directors of Harken Energy Corp. in 1990. Bush has claimed that he sold Harken stock on the assumption of a positive corporate outlook. However, on April 20 of that year, company President Mikel D. Faulkner told the directors that the company was facing grave financial problems, including a serious cash crisis that was exacerbated by pressure from lenders, as well as a slumping oil market. After receiving this dire news, in June Bush sold 212,140 shares of Harken stock. Shortly thereafter, on August 20, Harken reported a $23.2 million quarterly loss. Bush waited 36 weeks to file an SEC form about his sale. An SEC investigation, conducted while Bush's father was President of the United States, declared "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him." but the investigation's termination "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result." As President, Bush has refused to authorize the SEC to release its full report on the investigation. When reporters asked Bush about his Harken activities, he told them that they "need to look back on the director's minutes", although this would in fact be impossible because Harken has declined to release its board records ever since questions were first raised concerning Bush's activities there.
The sale of Harken stock helped pay off a loan for his purchase of a partial interest in the Texas Rangers. He served as managing general partner of the Rangers until he was elected Governor of Texas on November 8, 1994 over incumbent Ann Richards. When the team was sold in 1998, Bush had earned $15,000,000.
He went on to become the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms. His tenure in office featured a reputation for bipartisan leadership, and some controversy, even international controversy. During Bush's tenure, Texas saw a sharp rise in capital punishment.
According to some reports, George W. Bush's nickname with his family and close friends is "Junior" since he is the eldest son of George H.W. Bush. George W. Bush is also known for his like of nicknames and his practice of bestowing others with them. Perhaps due to the similarity of his name with his father's, Bush has picked up a large number of nicknames himself, although this is largely due to critics who have bestowed an unusually high number of pejorative nicknames on Bush. Critics and media pundits occasionally refer to President George W. Bush by the initial "W.", sometimes spelled out as "Dubya".
Some representative positive or neutral nicknames:
Public Image and Personality
Some representative negative nicknames:
During the 2000 election, "Gush and Bore", a spoonerism was used to denigrate both Bush and his chief opponent in the race, Al Gore.
Bush himself bestows nicknames on nearly everyone he meets. The best known nickname is probably "Pootie-Poot", bestowed by Bush on Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. Another reported example was one given to Jean Chrétien, prime minister of Canada, is reputedly "Dino" (short for "Dinosaur"). This flippancy sometimes is picked up by others and is purported to occasionally backfire either on Bush or on them.
Questions about the intelligence of major candidates also became an issue during the 2000 election. Bush and Al Gore were both ridiculed with collections of assorted oddities. Some have attempted to compare their current respective intellectual capacities by going decades back to their academic achievements. According to that criterion, Bush's academic record and background was by and large comparable to Gore's. For example, Bush's verbal SAT score was 566, Al Gore's was 625. In addition, Gore received lower grades in his second year at Harvard University than any semester recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale, and Gore earned no degrees higher than a Bachelor of Arts in Government (Gore having flunked out of graduate school twice), while Bush earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard. However, neither the correlation between SAT verbal scores and academic excellence, nor between academic excellence and intelligence, can be established; for example, Rhodes Scholar Bill Bradley's verbal SAT was a low 485, and an academic record does not take into account the difficulty of the classes taken or other factors that might impinge on a college record.
Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, President Bush enjoyed the highest approval ratings in history, upwards of 90% according to most polls. High approval ratings are historically common for war-time Presidents, but Bush was able to maintain his high approval ratings a year later and, as of November 2002, had the highest approval rating of any President during a mid-term election, since Dwight Eisenhower. The polls were not universally favorable, however, and at least one poll showed that only a minority of the electorate would vote to re-elect him in 2004. Polls conducted during 2003 showed similar results, leading both Democratic and Republican pollsters to believe that his campaign for re-election could be as competitive as the 2000 race was.
In the 2002 mid-term elections, the Republican Party retook control of the U.S. Senate and added to their majority in the House of Representatives, bucking the historic trend. Historically, the party in the White House loses seats in the mid-term elections. It marked just the third time since the Civil War that the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a mid-term election (others were 1902 and 1934). Some have suggested that the historic victory was due to Bush's popularity and his heavy campaigning for Republicans in numerous close races. However, others have argued that the Democrats lost seats in the election because of their timidity in criticizing Bush as a popular "war-time" President.
In 2003, Bush's approval ratings continued their slow descent from the 2001 highs. By late 2003, his approval numbers were in the low to middle 50's, around the lows of his Presidency. Nevertheless, his numbers were still historically solid for the third year of a Presidency, when the President's opponents typically begin their campaigns in ernest. Most polls tied the decline to growing concern over the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the economy's slow recovery from the 2001 recession.
A graphical summary of the trend of Bush's poll numbers can be seen at [1].
September 11, 2001 radically modified his policy goals after the election.
Bush's decision to impose a tariff on imported steel, and to withdraw from global initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol, ABM Treaty, an international land mine treaty and other multinational efforts, have convinced many that he (and his administration) has a policy of acting unilaterally, thus evading international responsibilities. Bush has justified these policies by arguing that these actions are in America's best interest. He has asserted, for example, that the Kyoto Protocol is "unfair and ineffective" because it would exempt 80 percent of the world and "cause serious harm to the U.S. economy."
Many governments have expressed their concern and dismay at what they see as a failure to ratify what they consider to be a key international environmental treaty and many nations (including the composite national grouping, the EU) are actively considering imposing sanctions against the US. However, blaming Bush for a failure to ratify may be rather off the mark. In 1997, the US Senate voted 95-0 that the United States should not become a party to the Kyoto Protocol unless developing nations are subject to scheduled limits or reductions of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol does not meet those criteria.
A change of focus immediately followed the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. His foreign (and domestic, to a lesser degree) policy was subsequently defined, above all, by the "War on Terrorism". This was first described in a special "Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People" on September 20, 2001 in which Bush announced that America was fighting a war on terrorism.
In July, 2002, Bush cut off $34 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This funding had been allocated by Congress the previous December. Bush claimed that the UNFPA supported forced abortions and sterilizations in mainland China. His justification came from a bipartisan group of antiabortion members of Congress and an antiabortion organization called The Population Research Institute, which claimed to have obtained first-hand video taped evidence from victims of forced abortion and forced sterilization in county where the UNFPA operates in the PRC. The decision was praised by many in pro-life movement, including the United States' largest public policy women's organization, Concerned Women For America.
Abortion-rights supporters criticized the decision and point out that the PRI refused to release information that would allow the team to locate the women, and thus no independent verification of PRI's claims was possible. Nor was it possible to confirm that UNFPA funding was actually behind the abortion and forced sterilizations alleged in the video. However, he sent a fact finding team to the PRC to investigate the situation there, and the team reported that UNFPA funding did not go towards forced abortions or sterilizations. Bush thus disregarded the findings of his own investigatory mission on this matter. See [1] for more information on the PRI.
The Bush presidency has also been marked by diplomatic tensions with the People's Republic of China and North Korea, the latter of which admitted in 2003 to possessing nuclear weapons and threatened to use them if provoked by the US.
Bush has also maintained a desire to resume the peace process in Israel, and openly proclaimed his desire for a Palestinian state to be created before 2005. He outlined a "roadmap for peace" that featuring compromises that had to be made by both sides before Palestinian statehood could become a reality. One particular proposal was his instance for new Palestinian leadership; a stance that saw the appointment of the first ever Palestinian Prime Minister on April 29, 2003.
Once the source of the September 11 terrorist attacks was traced to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network operating out of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Bush launched a military campaign against the country. Though the original intent of the strikes was to destroy terrorist infrastructures and training camps, it soon became clear that Afghanistan's Taliban government was deeply connected to Bin Laden's terrorist organization. On November 13, 2001 American troops seized control of the capital city of Kabul, and overthrew the Taliban government. Exiled President Burhanuddin Rabbani was returned to office, and was soon followed by a special interim government headed by former Afghani territorial governor Hamid Karzai. Diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and the United States resumed, and Karzai became a close ally of Washington in the continued fight against terrorism.
The Bush Administration has been criticized for holding several hundred individuals accused of connections to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba without trial. Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war cannot be held after the war has ended. The Bush Administration and its supporters, however, have countered that the war against America by Al-Qaeda is ongoing, that it is unconventional, and that the "battlefield" extends into America itself. George W. Bush is unapologetic about the detentions, labeling the detainees as "enemy combatants" and insisting that their detention is necessary.
The experiences encountered in dealing with the Taliban government inspired a new attitude in Bush Administration's attitude towards foreign policy. Bush believed that in America's continuing war against terror, the United States should not differentiate between terrorist groups, and the governments that support them. This view was highlighted in Bush's second State of the Union Address, in which he specifically singled out the nations of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as particularly distressing examples of states that sponsor terrorism, dubbing them an Axis of Evil.
By early 2002 Bush began actively pressing for regime change in the nation of Iraq, indicating that his government had reason to believe that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had ties to terrorist groups and was developing weapons of mass destruction. This proposal was controversial with much of the world, and significant portions of the American public. Upon the advice of Secretary of State Colin Powell Bush agreed to pursue the "UN route" to disarming Iraq. On November 8, 2002 a US-proposed United Nations Security Council was unanimously passed, condemning the Iraqi regime and re-instating a team of UN weapons inspectors. The inspectors did not make any significant finds, but the Bush administration claimed they were being manipulated and deceived by the Iraqi regime. Powell made an appeal to the Security Council, showing photographs and conversations which the administration believed presented proof that Iraq's government was engaging in widespread deception. As the Security Council did not react in favour of a military action against Iraq, Bush declared that the Council rendered itself "obsolete".
On March 20, 2003 Bush gave the go ahead for a full-scale military invasion of Iraq to overthrow the Iraqi regime. He did so using powers that had been granted to him by congress on October 16 of the previous year. After a few weeks of fighting, the Iraqi government was successfully overthrown on April 9, 2003 and US forces occupied the Iraqi capital. The military effort has now switched to an effort of maintaining Iraqi security, strengthening the nation's infrastructure, and preparing to hand over power to a democratically elected government. As this process shows to be more difficult and expensive than previously predicted the US government turns again toward the UN, asking for financial and military support in Iraq.
Throughout the course of the Iraqi war Bush was often the target of harsh criticism. Both in America and in the rest of the world there were numerous anti-war protests. On February 15 2003 there were over 10 million people in the streets all over the world. Many of the protesters were vehemently critical of Bush, calling him a "warmonger," an oil-hungry "imperialist," a "fascist." Bush dismissed the protesters as being merely "a focus group". European leaders were also critical of the President, especially French President Jacques Chirac who soon became the leading international voice of opposition to the Bush plan of Iraqi regime change. German Justice Minister, Herta Däubler-Gmelin compared the methods of Bush to those of Hitler. These remarks drew strong condemnation from both the United States and Europe; the minister resigned.
There were also in the United States rallies that supported the President's actions in Iraq and also supporting the US and coalition forces. The people who participated in these rallies praised Bush's leadership and courage in confronting Iraq. In stark contrast, however, these rallies were much less attended, in some cases amounting to only a few dozen.
Before the war, polls of Americans themselves tended to indicate a 50/50 split on invading Iraq, with the lowest rankings tending to come from polls that broke the question down into three options -- opposition to the war with or without United Nations weapons inspections, support only if the United Nations agrees and has had adequate time to search for weapons of mass destruction, and unconditional support of the war. After the war began, however, a solid majority of the American people and their representatives in Congress, in striking contrast to international opinion, backed Bush's decision to invade Iraq, with poll numbers ranging from 62% to as high as 70% in favor of the war. The inability of the U.S. to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, however, has led to greater domestic criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
Currently, a major controversy in the United States Congress is the debate over whether or not to expand the Patriot Act into a new Act known as Patriot Act II. This proposal would increase government surveillance on people in the United States suspected of terrorist activities and reduce judicial oversight over surveillance; authorize secret trials; and give the Justice Department the authority to revoke the American citizenship of anyone who belonged to an organization that the government deemed subversive. nuclear weapon in a major American city, the balance between security and liberty must shift somewhat. Supporters of the new law enforcement powers, such as Attorney General John Ashcroft have pointed out that against earlier predictions, nearly two years have passed without a single terrorist atrocity in the United States.
In any event, the debate over the proper role of government in people's lives will continue. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower Federal courts will rule on the constitutionality of the new laws.
Among the most prominent cabinet members are Vice President Dick Cheney,
Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
National Security Adviser Condolezza Rice, and Attorney General John Ashcroft. Bush also created the Department of Homeland Security, which houses Tom Ridge.
Popularity
Platform
Main article: George W. Bush's 2000 Election PlatformForeign policy
Bush's most significant foreign policy platform before coming to office involved support of a stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, in particular Mexico, and a reduction in involvement in "nation-building" and other small-scale military engagements. Military Campaigns
Domestic Security
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks the Bush administration asked Congress to approve a series of laws that it stated were necessary to prosecute the War on Terror. These included a wide variety of surveillance programs, some of which came under heavy fire from civil libertarians who criticized the Bush administration of scaling back civil liberties.Bush Security Initiatives
As mentioned, many of these actions were very controversial. Some accused the Bush administration of using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to clamp down on political dissent; indeed, many of Bush's critics were quick to allege that they were being unfairly targeted by the new security measures. Others accused the administration of over-reacting to the threat of terrorism, and participating in Big Brother style tactics with little justification.Cabinet
Main article: the Bush AdministrationLegislation signed
Partial list:
Related articles
External links
Oppositional Bush links
Preceded by :
Bill ClintonPresidents of the United States
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