George W. Bush

George Walker Bush
George Walker Bush
43rd President
Vice President	Dick Cheney
Preceded by	Bill Clinton
Personal details
Political party	Republican

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and the 43rd and current President of the United States. He is a member of the Bush political family, the son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of Jeb Bush, the 43rd and current Governor of Florida.

Before becoming president, he was a businessman, involved in the oil industry. He later was elected Governor of Texas, and won the nomination of the Republican Party in the 2000 presidential election over John McCain. Bush later went on to become president after defeating Vice President Al Gore of the Democratic Party in a controversial and close election. Bush was reelected in 2004, defeating U.S. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Personal life, service and education

George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was George H.W. Bush and his mother was Barbara Bush (born Barbara Pierce). He grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas, the older brother of Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. A younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953 at the age of three.

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George W. Bush and Laura Bush with their daughters Jenna and Barbara, 1990

George W. Bush in his National Guard uniform.

Like his father, Bush was educated at Phillips Academy (Andover), (September 1961–June 1964) and at Yale University (September 1964–May 1968). At Yale, he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon (of which he was president from October 1965 until graduation) and the Skull and Bones secret society. He was a "C" student, with a grade point average of 2.35 out of 4.00. He played baseball during his freshman year and rugby during his freshman and senior years. He received a bachelor's degree in history in 1968.

After graduating from Yale, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard on May 27, 1968 during the Vietnam War, with a commitment to serve until May 26, 1974. He served as an F-102 pilot until 1972 and was twice promoted during his service, first to second lieutenant and then to first lieutenant. In November 1970, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, the commander of the Texas Air National Guard, recommended that Bush be promoted to first lieutenant.

In September 1973 he received permission to end his six-year commitment six months early in order to attend Harvard University. He transferred to inactive reserve status shortly before being honorably discharged on October 1, 1973.

It has been alleged that Bush skipped over a waiting list to receive a coveted National Guard slot, that he did not report for required duty from 1972 to 1973, and that he was suspended from flying after he did not take a required physical examination and drug test. These issues were publicized during the 2004 campaign by Texans for Truth and other Bush critics. See George W. Bush military service controversy for details.

Bush entered Harvard Business School in 1973. He was awarded a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in 1975 – he would become the first U.S. president to hold an M.B.A degree.

On Labor Day weekend, September 4 1976, Bush was pulled over by police near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He was arrested, admitted his guilt, was fined $150, and had his driving license suspended for 30 days in the state for driving under the influence of alcohol [1]. News of the arrest was released five days before the 2000 presidential election by the Kennebunkport police department.

Bush married Laura Welch in 1977. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna Bush, born in 1981. In 1986, at the age of 40, he became a born-again Christian, leaving the Episcopal Church and joining his wife's denomination, the United Methodist Church.

Business and early political career

In 1978, Bush ran for the U.S. House of Representatives but lost to State Sen. Kent Hance, a Democrat.

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Bush's portrait as Governor of Texas (1995–2000)

Bush began his career in the oil industry in 1979 when he established Arbusto Energy, an oil and gas exploration company he formed in 1977 with leftover funds from his education trust fund and money from other investors. Some of this funding came from Saudi Arabian nationals including the bin Laden family, which in 1994 publicly distanced itself from its kinsman Osama bin Laden. The 1979 energy crisis hurt Arbusto and, after a name change to Bush Exploration Co., Bush sold the company in 1984 to Spectrum 7, another Texas oil and gas exploration firm. Under the terms of the sale, Spectrum 7 made Bush its chief executive officer. Spectrum 7 lost money, and in 1986 it was merged into Harken Energy Corporation, with Bush becoming a director of Harken.

After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he was told by a friend, William DeWitt, Jr., that then-owner Eddie Chiles, another of the Bushes' many friends, wanted to sell the Texas Rangers, an Arlington-based Major League Baseball franchise. In April 1989, Bush assembled a group of investors from his father's close friends; the group bought 86% of the Rangers for $75 million. (Bush later appointed one of these partners, Tom Schieffer, to the post of Ambassador to Australia.) Bush received a two percent share by investing $606,302, with $500,000 of it a loan from a bank. Bush paid off the loan by selling $848,000 worth of stock in Harken Energy in 1990, sparking allegations of insider trading.

In House of Bush, House of Saud, Craig Unger notes that at the time of Bush's sale, Harken Energy "was expected to run out of money in just three days" (p. 123). In a last-ditch attempt to save the company, Harken was advised by the endowment fund of Harvard University to spin-off two of its lower-performing divisions–"According to a Harken memo, if the plan did not go through, the company had 'no other source of immediate financing.'" Bush had already taken out a $500,000 loan and sought Harken's general counsel for advice. The attorneys advised him against selling so close to the receipt of internal information, fearing it could be construed as insider trading. This memo was turned over by Bush's attorney the day after the SEC ruled that it would not charge Bush with insider trading. On June 22, Bush sold his 212,140 shares of stock anyway for a net profit of $848,560. The very next quarter, Harken announced losses of $23 million, which continued to the end of the year when the stock "plummeted from $4 to $1.25."

The subsequent SEC investigation ended in 1992 with a memo stating "it appears that Bush did not engage in illegal insider trading," but noted that the memo "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result" ([2]). However, the SEC's makeup at the time may have heavily favored Bush. The chairman at the time was Richard Breeden, a good friend of the Bush family who had been nominated to the SEC by George H. W. Bush and had been a lawyer in James Baker's firm, Baker Botts. The SEC's general counsel at the time was James Doty, who had represented George W. Bush when he sought to buy into the Texas Rangers (although Doty recused himself from the investigation). Bush's own lawyer was Robert Jordan, who had been "partners with both Doty and Breeden at Baker Botts and who later became George W. Bush's ambassador to Saudi Arabia." Finally, Bruce Hiler, the associate director of the SEC's enforcement division, who wrote a letter to Bush's attorney saying the investigation was being terminated, now represents former Enron president Jeff Skilling in matters before the government ([3]).

As President, Bush has refused to authorize the SEC to release its full report on the Harken investigation. When the Rangers franchise was sold for $250 million in 1998, at a total profit of $170 million, Bush personally received $14.9 million for his $600,000 investment ([4]).

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The official gubernatorial portrait of Gov. Bush, hanging in the Texas State Capitol

Bush served as managing general partner of the Rangers until he was elected Governor of Texas on November 8, 1994 over incumbent Democrat Ann Richards. He went on to become, in 1998, the first Texas governor to be elected for two consecutive four-year terms.

Bush has been criticized [5] for overseeing the execution of 152 convicted criminals while governor, more than any other governor in the history of the United States. Texas's penal system allows the governor to grant a single 30-day reprieve for each offense, which Bush did for Henry Lee Lucas, only. It does not allow the governor to commute a sentence or grant pardons, except on the petition of the state parole board; however the governor's opinion is generally considered to carry a lot of weight with the members of the parole board, particularly since by the end of his term all 18 of them were Bush appointees. In any event, Bush made no attempt to intervene on behalf of any of the condemned, except Lucas. Bush has expressed his belief that all those executed were guilty, based on briefings by Alberto R. Gonzales, even though these briefings failed to mention critical factors, such as the fact that a condemned man's public defender slept through much of his case. [6] The 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker, who repented in prison and become a born-again Christian, was particularly controversial. Among those who unsuccessfully urged Bush to grant her clemency were Pope John Paul II and such prominent leaders of the Christian right as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. [7] The case received further notoriety in 1999, when conservative journalist Tucker Carlson published a profile of Bush in Talk magazine in which he reported that, in an interview with Carlson as a CNN correspondent, Bush had mocked Karla Faye Tucker's appeal for clemency. Carlson cited this incident as an example of occasional "flashes of meanness" beneath "Bush's brand of forthright tough-guy populism". (Talk, (New York NY, Talk Magazine LLC) Vol 1 No 1 September 1999, "Devil May Care", pp103 - 110).[8]

In 1996, Bush was summoned to jury duty in a Travis County, Texas drunk driving case. His counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, successfully argued that, as governor, Bush might one day be called to pardon the defendant, and that this should excuse him from sitting on the jury. When Bush's 1976 summary conviction for driving under the influence was made public during the 2000 presidential campaign, Democrat Ken Oden, the prosecutor of the 1996 case, re-examined the case and revealed that Bush's juror questionnaire left blank the question whether he had ever been accused in a criminal case. The prosecutor said, "With all the new information that has come forward, it's logical to see that there may have been motives at work that none of us knew about." He concluded that Bush had "used his position as governor" to avoid disclosing the information, because the conviction was neither included on the written form nor mentioned by Gonzales. The prosecutor added, "I feel I was directly deceived." A Bush campaign spokesman responded that the form had been "filled out by a staff member who left a variety of questions blank, including the Social Security number, because he didn't know the answers to them" ([9]).

Presidential campaigns

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Al Gore greets President-Elect Bush at the White House in late December of 2000.

In Bush's 2000 presidential election campaign, he declared himself to be a "compassionate conservative." He campaigned on, among other issues, allowing religious charities to compete on an equal basis for participation in federally funded programs, tax cuts, promoting the use of education vouchers, supporting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, maintaining a balanced federal budget, and restructuring of the armed forces. In foreign policy, he stated that he was against using the U.S. armed forces in "nation building" attempts abroad.

Bush was inaugurated President on January 20 2001. Bush had faced Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, and won electoral votes in 30 of 50 states for a narrow majority of the electoral votes (Bush-271, Gore-266). Neither candidate received a majority of the nationwide popular vote (Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 2,695,696 votes, Libertarian Party candidate Harry Browne received 386,024 votes, pushing Gore under 50 percent), but Gore received more votes by approximately 540,000 out of 105 million, a margin of barely one-half of one percent. It was the first presidential election since the 1876 election in which a candidate received fewer popular votes while winning the electoral vote, and the first presidential election since the 1888 presidential election where the prinicpal party of the winning candidate received fewer popular votes than the principal party of the losing candidate. It was also the first presidential election to be directly affected by a Supreme Court decision.

The Florida vote, which favored Bush by a slim margin in the initial count, was heavily contested after concerns were raised about flaws and irregularities in the voting process, and became the subject of a series of contentious court cases. After the Supreme Court's mid-December decision in Bush v. Gore to end the recounts, Gore conceded the election. In the final official count, Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes, and thereby won the presidency, by 537 votes. See U.S. presidential election, 2000. The election results are still disputed by many, though no longer contested in any legal venue.

In the 2004 election, Bush won a second term, an electoral majority, and also received 3.5 million popular votes more than his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry. Bush was the first presidential candidate since his father, George H.W. Bush in 1988 to receive a majority of the popular vote. (The intervening elections had seen stronger showings by non-major party candidates such as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.) His margin over Kerry of about 3 percent was the smallest popular vote margin for a re-elected President since Woodrow Wilson's 1916 victory. As in the 2000 election, there were charges raised alleging voting improprieties, especially in Ohio. In 2004 they did not lead to recounts that were expected to affect the result, but led to a civil case challenging the result. On January 3, three days before the counting of electoral votes, Bush's campaign asked the judge to throw out the case.

Bush was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 2005; the oath was administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Bush's inaugural speech centered mainly on a theme of spreading freedom and democracy around the world. George W. Bush is the only President to win re-election after losing the popular vote in his first election. Of the three other Presidents who lost the popular vote, John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison were defeated in their bids for a second term, and Rutherford B. Hayes did not seek re-election.

Related articles: 2004 U.S. election voting controversies; 2004 U.S. Election controversies and irregularities and its subsidiary articles on 2004 election (voting machines), 2004 election (exit polls), and 2004 election (voter suppression)

Years as President

Presidency

Foreign policy and security

During his first presidential visit to Europe in June 2001, Bush came under harsh criticism from European leaders for his rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions that may contribute to global warming. The treaty, symbolically signed by Vice President Gore in 1998, was never submitted by the Clinton administration to the United States Senate following the 95-0 passage of the Byrd-Hagel Resolution. The 1997 resolution (S. Res. 98) pre-emptively opposed any Kyoto treaty that did not place or schedule binding commitments on developing nations. The passage of the resolution effectively stopped Kyoto from becoming binding on the United States. In November 2004, Russia ratified the treaty, giving it the required minimum of nations to put it into force.

Bush's imposition of a tariff on imported steel and on Canadian soft lumber was controversial in light of his pursuit of other free market policies, and attracted criticism both from his fellow conservatives and from nations affected. The steel tariff was later rescinded under pressure from the World Trade Organization.

During his campaign, Bush's foreign policy platform included support of a stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, especially Mexico, and a reduction in involvement in "nation-building" and other small-scale military engagements. However, after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the administration focused much more on foreign policy in the Middle East.

Shortly after the attacks, a war was launched against Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, which Bush charged with harboring Osama bin Laden. This action had strong international support, and the Taliban government folded quickly after the invasion. Subsequent nation-building efforts in concert with the United Nations under Afghan president Hamid Karzai have had mixed results; bin Laden was not apprehended or killed, and (as of 2005) is still at large. A sizeable contingent of troops and advisors remains into 2005. See U.S. invasion of Afghanistan for details. Democratic elections were held on October 9, 2004. There were allegations of flawed registration and validation, and 15 of the 18 presidential candidates threatened to withdraw, but international observers called the elections "fairly democratic" at the "overall majority" of polling centers. The election was won by Hamid Karzai with 55.4% of the votes. [10]

On December 14, 2001, Bush withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had been a bedrock of U.S.-Soviet nuclear stability during the Cold War, arguing it was no longer relevant. Instead, Bush focused resources on a ballistic missile defense system. The proposed system has been the subject of much scientific criticism. Field tests have been mixed, with both some successes and failures. It is scheduled to start deployment in 2005. A ballistic missile defense system will not stop cruise missiles, or missiles transported by boat or land vehicle. Hence, many critics of the system believe it is an expensive mistake, built for the least likely attack, a nuclear tipped ballistic missile. Bush has also increased spending on military research and development and the modernization of weapons systems, but cancelled programs such as the Crusader self-propelled artillery system. The administration also began initial research into bunker-busting nuclear missiles.

Since 1998, when the United States Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act, stated U.S. policy had been to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. After the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration argued that the Iraq situation had now become urgent. The stated premise was that Hussein's regime had tried to acquire nuclear material and had not properly accounted for biological, and chemical material sold to Hussein's government by the US in the past, potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in violation of U.N. sanctions. Bush contended that Hussein might deliver such WMD to terrorists such as al Qaeda, though that group of Wahhabi Muslims positioned itself as mortal enemies of the secular Hussein government, whom Osama bin Laden referred to publicly as satanist.

Beginning in 2002 and escalating in spring 2003, Bush pressed the UN to act on its disarmament mandates to Iraq, precipitating a diplomatic crisis. He began by pushing for UN weapons inspections in Iraq, which he received with passage of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which allowed inspectors lead by Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to investigate Bush's allegations. Increasing pressure from the United States in the spring of 2003 forced the UN weapons inspectors to leave the country, unable to verify the existence of any WMD in Iraq. The Bush administration examined the possibility of seeking a Security Council resolution to authorize the use of military force, but abandoned the idea when it became clear that the majority of the members (including most of the permanent members with vetoing power) would vote against such a resolution; the matter was never taken to a vote (cf. The UN Security Council and the Iraq war). The United States gathered a group of countries to support a war, a total of about forty. Bush has called it the "coalition of the willing". Spain has since pulled out of the war; Poland has announced that it will withdraw troops in 2005.

The United States invaded Iraq in March, citing many Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq (1441, 1205, 1137, 1134, 1115, 1060, 949, 778, 715), the current and past lack of Iraqi cooperation with those resolutions, Hussein's occasional refusal to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors, Hussein's attempt to assasinate former president George Bush while visting Kuwait, and Hussein's violation of the 1991 cease fire agreement. The primary stated goal of the war was to stop Iraq from deploying and developing WMD by removing Hussein from power. The war proved extremely divisive, without any clear resolution with some of the U.S.'s long-term allies such as France and Germany strongly opposed to it. In many countries there have also been civilian opposition and antiwar protests, on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War. The war was called illegal by the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan. Critics, however, have attempted to connect the oil for food scandal, alleged to benefit UN officials and nations like France, Germany, and Russia, to their opposition to the war.

While the Iraqi armed forces fell apart within a few days, the problems in Iraq later escalated. An insurgency continued after the declared end of major combat operations on May 1, 2003, with several terrorist groups also supporting the insurgency. More than 1400 U.S. troops have been killed and over 9000 have been wounded in action. [11] The failure to uncover the alleged WMD led to renewed allegations that intelligence estimates were spun or distorted to support the war. These claims have been corroborated by investigations and reports by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which also concluded that there was a strong failure of intelligence overall. Nevertheless, Bush states that he still believes it was the right decision, because a demonstrably brutal tyrant has been overthrown and can no longer threaten the world. See 2003 invasion of Iraq for full coverage. In further support of his view, Bush praised the high turnout in the Iraqi election of January 30 2005, and polls conducted of Iraqi citizens' opinion of the war.

In July of 2002, Bush cut off all funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Bush claimed that the UNFPA supported forced abortions and sterilizations in China.

Bush's foreign policy is influenced by the neo-conservative think tank Project for the New American Century, many of whose members have prominent positions in the Bush administration. Many argue that the administration is far more inspired by the Heritage Foundation, and to a lesser degree the Cato Institute, although these organizations lack representation in the administration.

In his 2004 inaugural address, he outlined his vision for a Pax Americana, alluding to new foreign policy set forth in the National Security Strategy of the United States of America (pdf). Supporters of Bush see this policy as a necessary rejection of "balance of power" politics and a redefinition of America's role in the international forum, while critics of this policy consider it arrogant and dangerous on a global and historical scale. (See disinfopedia's article on Pax Americana for critic's reasoning.) Bush's 2005 inaugural address spoke of his intent to act aggressively and with force "when necessary" against "every ruler and every nation" he considers "oppressive" and who refuse to "start on this journey of progress and justice." He stated that his doctrine has "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Critics described Bush's 2005 address as "unabashedly aggressive." [12]

Domestic policy

George W. Bush greets an audience of firefighters on November 4, 2003, as California Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov. Gray Davis listen.

On gay rights, Bush endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would define marriage as being "between a man and a woman"; it would ban same-sex marriage and possibly even gay civil unions. A week before the 2004 election, however, Bush expressed his disagreement with the Republican Party platform that opposed civil unions, and said that the decision on civil unions should be left up to the states. [13] After his 2004 re-election, his level of support for the amendment was unclear. According to the New York Times, he told a privately invited group of African-American community and religious leaders that he remained committed to amending the Consitution to ban gay marriage. [14] Nevertheless, when he announced his ten-point legislative agenda, the amendment was not included, and administration officials have said that Bush wants to focus on other issues and avoid divisive social topics such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Bush has also said that he would not lobby for the Federal Marriage Amendment during his second term unless the Defense of Marriage Act were declared unconstitutional. [15] Without this qualification, however, he repeated his support for a "constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage" in his February 2, 2005 State of the Union address.

During Bush's first term, his nominee as ambassador to Romania, Michael E. Guest, became the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the Senate as a U.S. ambassador. (The first openly gay ambassador, James Hormel, received a recess appointment from Bill Clinton after the Senate failed to confirm the nomination. [16])

Bush has tended to be opposed to forms of affirmative action, but expressed appreciation for the Supreme Court's ruling upholding selecting college applicants for purposes of diversity. Bush has met with the National Urban League as President, but has not yet met with the NAACP as a group since he became president, though he did address the NAACP at their 2000 convention in Baltimore as a presidential candidate, and he met with outgoing NAACP President Kweisi Mfume on December 21, 2004. In welcoming the surprise invitation of Mfume to the White House, NAACP said 'Although candidate Bush appeared at the NAACP’s Convention in 2000, in 2004 President Bush became the first President since Warren G. Harding to not meet with the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization when he declined an invitation to speak at the 2004 NAACP Annual Convention in Philadelphia.' [17] Colin Powell became the first African-American man to serve as Secretary of State during Bush's first term in office. He was succeeded by Condolezza Rice in the same cabinet post beginning in 2005, becoming the first African-American female to serve in such capacity.

During his first term, Bush sought and obtained Congressional approval for three major tax cuts. These temporary cuts, scheduled to expire a decade after passage, increased the standard income tax deduction for married couples, eliminated the estate tax, and reduced marginal tax rates. By 2004, these cuts had reduced federal tax revenues, as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, to the lowest level since 1959. [18] The effect of simultaneous record increases in spending was to create record budget deficits. In the last year of the Clinton administration, the federal budget showed an annual surplus of more than US$230 billion. [19] Under Bush, however, the government returned to deficit spending. The annual deficit reached a record level of $374 billion in 2003 ([20]) and then a further record of $413 billion in 2004 ([21]). In an open letter to Bush in 2004, more than 100 professors of business and economics at U.S. business schools ascribed this "fiscal reversal" to Bush's "policy of slashing taxes - primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution". [22] The cuts were enacted as temporary ones, but Bush has expressed the hope that they will be made permanent.

Bush proposed an immigration bill that some called a "partial amnesty" because it would have greatly expanded the use of guest worker visas. [[23]

Bush has called for major changes in Social Security, identifying the issue as a priority for his second term. As of 2005 it is expected that he will offer a proposal incorporating reductions in benefit levels and partial privatization (allowing individual workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts). Most Democrats and some Republicans are critical of such ideas, partly because of the large federal borrowing the plan would require ($1 trillion or more) and partly because of the problems encountered by the United Kingdom's privatized pension plan.

Bush signed the Medicare Act of 2003, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare, subsidized large employers to discourage them from eliminating private prescription coverage to retired workers, and prohibited the Federal government from negotiating discounts with drug companies.

Of the $2.4 trillion budgeted for 2005, about $401 billion [24] are planned to be spent on defense. This level is generally comparable to the defense spending during the cold war. [25]

In January of 2003, Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, which targets supporting early learning, measures student performance, gives options over failing schools, and ensures more resources for schools. Critics (including Senator Kerry and the National Education Association) say schools were not given the resources to help meet new standards, although the House Committee on Education and the Workforce said in June, 2003 that in three years under the Bush administration the Education Department's overall funding would have increased by $13.2 billion [26]. Some state governments are refusing to implement provisions of the act as long as they are not adequately funded.[27] In January of 2005, USA Today reported that the United States Department of Education had paid $240,000 to conservative political commentator Armstrong Williams "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same." [28] Williams did not disclose the payments.

Scientists have repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for reducing funding for scientific research, setting restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research (to be fair, proponents have pointed out that President Bush is also the first president to give funding to stem cell research), ignoring scientific consensus on global warming, and hampering cooperation with foreign scientists by enforcing deterring immigration and visa restrictions. In February 2004, over 5,000 scientists (including 48 Nobel Prize winners) from the Union of Concerned Scientists signed a statement "opposing the Bush administration's use of scientific advice". They felt that "the Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy-making that is so important for our collective welfare." [29] [30][31]

On January 14, 2004, Bush announced a "space vision", calling for a return to the Moon by 2020, the completion of the International Space Station by 2010 and eventually sending astronauts to Mars. Although the plan was met with a largely tepid reception [32], the budget eventually passed with a few minor changes after the November elections. In January 2005 the White House released a new Space Transportation Policy fact sheet which outlined the adminstration's space policy in broad terms and tied the development of space transport capabilities to national security requirements.

Bush's environmental record has been attacked by environmentalists, who charge that his policies cater to industry demands to weaken environmental protections. He signed the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 authorizing the federal government to begin cleaning up pollution and contaminated sediment in the Great Lakes, as well as the Brownfields Legislation in 2002, accelerating the cleanup of abandoned industrial sites, or brownfields, to better protect public health, create jobs, and revitalize communities. In December 2003, Bush signed legislation implementing key provisions of his Healthy Forests Initiative; environmental groups have charged that the plan is simply a giveaway to timber companies. Another subject of controversy is Bush's Clear Skies plan; opponents say that the initiative will in fact allow utilities to pollute more than they do currently. During his first presidential bid, Bush stated he supported the Kyoto protocol global warming treaty, but once in office he reversed that position, saying it would harm the U.S. economy. Environmental groups note that many Bush Administration officials, in addition to Bush and Cheney, have ties to the energy industry, automotive industry, and other groups that have fought against environmental protections. However, Bush claims his reason for not supporting the Kyoto Protocol is that it unfairly targets the U.S. as opposed to other nations, especially China.

Cabinet


OFFICE	NAME	TERM

President	George W. Bush	2001—
Vice President	Richard B. Cheney	2001—

State	Colin L. Powell	2001–2005
	Condoleezza Rice	2005—
Defense	Donald H. Rumsfeld	2001—
Treasury	Paul H. O'Neill	2001–2003
	John W. Snow	2003—
Justice	John D. Ashcroft	2001–2005
	Alberto R. Gonzales	2005—
Interior	Gale A. Norton	2001—
Agriculture	Ann M. Veneman	2001–2005
	Mike Johanns	2005—
Commerce	Donald L. Evans	2001–2005
	Carlos M. Gutierrez	2005—
Labor	Elaine L. Chao	2001—
HHS	Tommy G. Thompson	2001–2005
	Michael O. Leavitt	2005—
HUD	Melquiades R. Martinez	2001–2003
	Alphonso R. Jackson	2004—
Transportation	Norman Y. Mineta	2001—
Energy	E. Spencer Abraham	2001–2005
	Samuel W. Bodman	2005—
Education	Roderick R. Paige	2001–2005
	Margaret Spellings	2005—
Veterans Affairs	Anthony J. Principi	2001–2005
	James Nicholson	2005—
Homeland Security	Thomas J. Ridge	2003–2005
	Michael Chertoff	2005—

Bush's cabinet included the largest number of minorities of any U.S. federal cabinet to date, including the first two Asian-American federal cabinet secretaries (Chao and Mineta). This gives it the distinction of being both the most racially diverse, and, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the wealthiest cabinet ever.

There is one non-Republican present in Bush's cabinet: Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, the first Asian-American cabinet secretary, who had previously served as Secretary of Commerce under Bill Clinton, is a Democrat.

His cabinet included figures prominent in past administrations, notably Colin Powell, who had served as United States National Security Advisor under Ronald Reagan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H. W. Bush and Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had served in the same position under Gerald Ford.
Also, Vice President Richard Cheney served as Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush.

Other advisors and officials

United States Director of National Intelligence - John Negroponte (nominee) (2005)
CIA Director - George Tenet (2001–2004), John E. McLaughlin (interim director, 2004), Porter J. Goss (2004—)
FBI Director - Robert Mueller
National Security Advisor - Condoleezza Rice (2001–2005), Stephen Hadley (2005—)
EPA Administrator - Christine Todd Whitman (2001–2003), Michael O. Leavitt (2003–2005), Stephen L. Johnson (2005-)
UN Ambassador - John Negroponte (2001–2004), John Danforth (2004) Nominee John Bolton
FCC Chairman - Michael Powell(2001-2005)
OMB Director - Mitch Daniels (2001–2003), Joshua B. Bolten (2003—)
White House Chief of Staff - Andrew Card
Senior Advisor - Karl Rove
White House counsel - Alberto R. Gonzales(2001–2005), Harriet Miers (2005-)
Advisor - Karen Hughes (2001–2002)
White House Press Secretary - Ari Fleischer (2001–2003), Scott McClellan (2003—)

Among the more criticized appointments have been John Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, Otto Reich, and John Poindexter for their roles in the Iran-Contra Affair and for allegedly covering up human rights abuses in Central and South America.

Some of Bush's other appointments have been noted as reflecting a preference for family members of favored officials. These include: J. Strom Thurmond Jr. (Senator Strom Thurmond's son) as South Carolina's U.S. Attorney, Eugene Scalia (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's son) as Solicitor for the Labor Department, Janet Rehnquist (U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist's daughter) as Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (later fired for firearms charges and inappropriate job terminations), and Elizabeth Cheney (Vice President Cheney's daughter) to the newly created position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near-East Affairs.

Legislation

Partial list:

2001 June 7: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
2001 September 18: Authorization for Use of Military Force
2001 September 28: United States-Jordan Free Trade Area Implementation Act
2001 October 26: USA PATRIOT Act
2001 November 28: Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act
2002 January 8: No Child Left Behind Act
2002 March 9: Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002
2002 March 27: Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
2002 May 13: Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
2002 July 30: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
2002 October 16: Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq
2002 November 25: Homeland Security Act of 2002
2003 March 11: Do-Not-Call Implementation Act
2003 April 30: PROTECT Act of 2003 (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act) (see also Age_of_consent#Social_and_legal_attitudes) [33]
2003 May 27: United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003
2003 May 28: Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
2003 September 3: United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
2003 September 3: United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
2003 November 5: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003
2003 December 8: Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003
2003 December 16: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM)
2004 April 1: Unborn Victims of Violence Act (Laci and Conner's Law)
2005 February 18: Class Action Fairness Act of 2005

Public perception and assessments

Domestic

File:Time 2004 poty.jpg

Bush as TIME Person of the Year 2004.

In the time of national crisis following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush briefly enjoyed approval ratings of greater than 85%. Bush maintained these extraordinary ratings (the highest approval ratings of any president since such regular polls began in 1938) for some months following the attack, though they gradually dropped to lower levels.

During the 2002 midterm congressional elections, Bush had the highest approval rating of any president during a midterm election since Dwight Eisenhower, and subsequently the Republican Party retook control of the Senate and added to their majority in the House of Representatives. These results marked an unusual deviation from the historic trend of the President's party losing congressional seats in the midterm elections, and was 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 midterm election (others were 1902 and 1934). One explanation for this historic event is that Bush's wartime popularity carried over to other Republicans in races for legislative office. Another is that the singularly close election of Bush in 2000 complicates expectations based on general historic trends.

In 2003, Bush's approval ratings continued their slow descent from the 2001 highs, with 13 major polls agreeing on a remarkably stable and consistent 1.7% per month decline for his entire presidency with the exceptions of only three significant increases: immediately after 9/11, during the Iraq War, and the capture of Saddam Hussein. By late 2003, his approval numbers were in the low to middle 50s. Nevertheless, his numbers were still solid for the third year of a Presidency, when the President's opponents typically begin their campaigns in earnest. 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. Late during the Democratic primary season, most major polls showed Bush losing to the various Democratic challengers by a narrow margin. Polls of May 2004 showed anywhere from a 53 percent approval rating [34] to a 46 percent approval rating. [35] Composite time-series graphs of Bush's approval ratings from January 2001 to January 2005 are available at [36] [37], and an analysis of G. W. Bush's popularity over time is available at [38].

Bush has been the subject of both high praise and stringent criticism, and has been called by some the "love him or hate him" president. The former have focused on matters such as the economy, homeland security, and especially his leadership after the September 11 attacks; the latter on matters such as the economy, the controversial 2000 election, and the occupation of Iraq. The magazine TIME named Bush as its Person of the Year for 2000 and 2004. This award is traditionally given to the person considered by the editors to be the most important newsmaker of the year.

Outside the United States

Bush's popularity outside the United States is generally lower. In many parts of the world he is very unpopular, with many reporting a dislike of his personality and foreign policy. The 2003 Invasion of Iraq particularly provoked charges of unilateralism. Polls indicate erosion of support among Europeans for Bush, for example a drop from 36% to 16% favorability from mid-2002 to mid-2003 in Germany.[39] A broader Associated Press/Ipsos survey of industrialized nations found that a majority of people in UK, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Spain—in addition to Canada and Australia, where cooperation with American leaders is traditional—have an unfavorable view of Bush and his policy on foreign affairs, although significant minorities continue to report favorable views. [40] In Muslim countries Bush's unfavorability ratings are particularly high, often over 90%. [41] Among the non-U.S. nations polled in a worldwide study, Bush's popularity was highest in Israel, where 62% reported favorable views. [42]

File:05-My-pet-goat.jpg

Bush reading The Pet Goat in a classroom after being informed of the attack on the World Trade Center. He was criticized by some for his apparent nonchalance, but praised by others for not alarming the schoolchildren.

A July and August 2004 survey by the University of Maryland and GlobeScan, Inc. of 34,330 people in 35 nations found that, in 30 out of 35 countries polled, a majority or plurality would have preferred to see Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry win in the 2004 election. Kerry was strongly preferred by traditional European allies like Norway (74% for Kerry to 7% for Bush), Germany (74% to 10%), the Netherlands (62% to 15%), France (64% to 5%), Italy (58% to 14%), Spain (45% to 7%), and the United Kingdom (47% to 16%). Also other allies such as Japan (43% to 23%), Mexico (38% to 18%), Turkey (40% to 25%) and South Africa (43% to 29%). The only countries where Bush was preferred by a majority were the Philippines, Nigeria, and Poland. India and Thailand were divided. [43] An October [44]poll by a range of major international newspapers shows that in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and South Korea a majority of voters share a rejection of the Iraq invasion, contempt for the Bush administration and a growing hostility to the U.S.; however, while they all oppose the Bush government's politics, they do not express a dislike of American people. Another poll found that Israel and Russia were the only countries surveyed in which a majority favored Bush over Kerry.

After the election another poll was conducted by GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, commissioned by the BBC World Service, between November 15 and January 3 in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the UK. Of the 22,000 participants, 58% said they expected the second Bush presidency to have a negative impact on peace and security; only 26% expected him to have a positive effect. In one of the United States' closest allies, the United Kingdom, 64% disagreed with the proposition that Bush would have a positive effect. Only in the Philippines, Poland and India did a majority of those polled think Bush would have a positive effect [45].

Alcohol and drug use

Bush has described his days before his religious conversion as his "nomadic" period and "irresponsible youth". Bush admitted to drinking "too much" in those years. He said that although he never joined Alcoholics Anonymous, he gave up drinking for good shortly after waking up with a hangover after his 40th birthday celebration: "I quit drinking in 1986 and haven't had a drop since then." He ascribed the change in part to a 1985 meeting with The Rev. Billy Graham ([46], [47], [48]). A 1992 video widely circulated on the internet is said to show him intoxicated at a wedding and drinking a clear liquid from what may be a water bottle. [49]

According to a CNN report ([50]) Bush reported that he had not used any illegal drugs in over 25 years. Taped recordings ([51], [52]) with old friend and author, Doug Wead, however imply he did use the illegal drug marijuana at some time in his past. In the taped recordings Bush essentially admits to marijuana use. “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” Bush says. “You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” When Mr. Wead reminded Mr. Bush that he had publicly denied using cocaine, he replied, "I haven't denied anything."

Katherine van Wormer, a professor of social work and writer on addiction treatment, claimed in an Irish Times article on 6 May, 2003 that Bush seems to display "all the classic patterns of addictive thinking" (reproduced here in CounterPunch). She bases this view on her perception that he exhibits "the tendency to go to extremes," a "kill or be killed mentality," incoherence while speaking away from script, impatience, irritability in the face of disagreement, and a rigid, judgemental outlook. Her analysis, expressed in colloquial rather than clinical terms, draws on her own addiction treatment experience and writings. Justin Frank, a clinical professor of psychiatry and former Salon magazine writer, has incorporated similar, though apparently independent, observations into a book about the president, Bush on the Couch ISBN 0060736704 [53], which was quoted extensively in a speech by Fidel Castro [54]]. The analyses of both van Wormer and Frank are based on their belief in the need of alcoholics to follow the "twelve steps" of the organization Alcoholics Anonymous in order to recover from alcoholism, and that anyone who does not do so is likely to have the problems outlined above.

Bush has also been accused of using cocaine in the past. In the summer of 1999, many news organizations received an email alleging that Bush had been convicted on a drug charge, but that the conviction had been expunged in exchange for Bush's performing community service at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston. The email included the contact information for the director of the Community Center, but she responded, "I've never heard of him doing community services here at this agency, and I've been the only director for 31 and a half years." [55]

Two months later, J.H. Hatfield published a biography of Bush, Fortunate Son, a largely favorable account of the life of the younger Bush and the Bush family in general. Hatfield said that, because it was known that Bush had worked at Houston's Project P.U.L.L. in 1972, the news reports about the community service allegations led him to wonder if Bush's work at Project P.U.L.L. could have been part of such an arrangement. In an afterword to the book, Hatfield stated that this version of events was confirmed by three sources; he did not name them, but described them as being close to the Bush family. [56] Hatfield's original publisher later recalled the book after learning of Hatfield's concealed felony conviction resulting from an unsuccessful murder conspiracy. Hatfield responded that, before the Bush campaign brought pressure to bear, the same publisher had stated that the book had been "carefully fact-checked and scrutinized by lawyers" ([57])

In a New York Times article in June, 2000, "Ally of an Older Generation Amid the Tumult of the 60's", senior Times journalist Nicholas D. Kristof, author of the chapter on George W. Bush in the reference book The Presidents, concluded that "For all the buffeting that late-night television has given Mr. Bush over questions of drug use, he was in most respects a very conventional young man, and classmates say they do not recall him ever using marijuana or other illegal drugs."

In 1999, while beginning his campaign for the 2000 presidential race, Bush told the press that, as a condition of Federal employment, he had signed a statement that he had not taken drugs within the past seven years. Asked if he would have met the fifteen-year drugs background test imposed by his father in 1989 as a qualification for White House employment, he answered affirmatively, while refusing to answer regarding cocaine use before 1974. He also called Hatfield's book "totally ridiculous" ([58]).

In February 2004, Eric Boehlert in Salon magazine claimed that Bush's cessation of flying in April, 1972 and his subsequent refusal to take a physical exam came at the same time the Air Force announced its Medical Service Drug Abuse Testing Program, which was officially launched April 21. Boehlert said "according to Maj. Jeff Washburn, the chief of the National Guard's substance abuse program, a random drug-testing program was born out of that regulation and administered to guardsmen such as Bush. The random tests were unrelated to the scheduled annual physical exams, such as the one that Bush failed to take in 1972, a failure that resulted in his grounding." Boehlert remarks that the drug testing took years to implement, but "as of April 1972, Air National guardsmen knew random drug testing was going to be implemented" [59].

References

External links

Transcripts

2000 GOP Convention Nomination Speech (August 3, 2000)
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center (September 11, 2001)
Remarks by the President Upon Arrival at Barksdale Air Force Base (September 11, 2001)
Presidential Address to the Nation (September 11, 2001)
Declaration of War on Terrorism
Issues Military Order No. 1, Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism (November 13, 2001)
2002 State of the Union Address
2003 State of the Union Address
Presidential Address to the Nation Announcing Operation Iraqi Freedom
President Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended
Presidential Address to the Nation on America's Actions in the War on Terrorism
Address to the UN General Assembly
Presidential Address to the Nation on the Capture of Saddam Hussein
2004 State of the Union Address
"Meet the Press with Tim Russert" interview with President George W. Bush (The Oval Office, February 7, 2004)
Bush Interview by RTÉ News (Irish TV) – June 25, 2004 – Real player video feeds
Bush Interview by RTÉ News (Irish TV) – June 25, 2004 – transcript
2004 GOP Convention Nomination Speech (September 2, 2004)
2005 State of the Union Address

Official and news links

Information sites

LookSmart - George W. Bush directory category
Open Directory Project - George W. Bush directory category
Yahoo - George W. Bush directory category
The George W. Bush Public Domain Audio Archive
Campaign contributions made by George W. Bush
Legality of the second Iraq war (Operation Iraqi Freedom)

Preceded by Ann Richards	Governor of Texas 1995–2000	Succeeded by Rick Perry
Preceded by Bob Dole	Republican Presidential Nominee 2000 (won), 2004 (won)	Succeeded by -
Preceded by Bill Clinton	President of the United States 2001 –	Succeeded by Incumbent

v t e Presidents of the United States
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