George W. Bush – the 43rd President

George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States, and he is the second presidential son to gain the office. John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, was son to John Adams, the second president. Bush’s presidency was modeled on compassion, but a terrorist attack forced the commander-in-chief to adopt aggressive measures to protect the nation.

Early Years

George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. When his father, George H.W. Bush, got into the oil business, the family moved to Midland, Texas. The younger Bush looked up to his father and followed in his footsteps, attending Phillips Academy Andover and Yale.  He got an MBA at Harvard.

Like his presidential parent, Bush also became a pilot and served in the Texas Air National Guard, but he was stationed in the United States and did not see any combat.

In the 1970s, he worked for an oil company and then started his own energy business. Later, he became part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball club.

Politics

George W. Bush first ran for public office in 1978, but he didn’t win. In 1993, he defeated Ann Richards, a popular Democrat, for the governor of Texas. He focused on juvenile justice, education, and welfare and won re-election in 1998 by a landslide.

Again, taking a page from his father’s political career, Bush set his sights on becoming president. He beat Sen. John McCain of Arizona for the Republican presidential nomination and then defeated the Democrat Vice President Al Gore. However, Gore won the popular vote by more than 500,000 ballots, while George W. Bush captured the Electoral College, with just a few hundred more votes than Gore. This caused controversy, with many people believing Bush had not really won the 2000 presidential election.

President George W. Bush

George W. Bush approached his presidency and domestic dealings with “compassionate conservative” policies. In his first inaugural address, he said:

“Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility, courage, compassion and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.”

His policies emphasized small government and free market so that people could help themselves. When they couldn’t, churches and local groups would help them with Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which allowed religious organizations to work with the government to help with social problems.

In education, Congress passed his No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. This law raised education standards, but it also created controversy because it relied on student testing for federal funding.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 provided prescription benefits for seniors and created savings accounts for healthcare.

Bush was able to get congressional support for $1.35 trillion in tax cuts; however, this was only temporary. As tax revenue declined, the government’s budget fell into a huge deficit. In 2008, housing prices collapsed, and the stock market crashed, causing what is now known as “the Great Recession.”

On September 11, 2001, al Queda (Islamic terrorists) attacked America, which came to be known as 9/11. They flew planes into the Pentagon, the Twin Towers in New York City, and crashed a plane in a Pennsylvania field. In his autobiography, Decision Points, George W. Bush wrote, “[I]n a single morning, the purpose of my presidency had grown clear: to protect our people and defend our freedom that had come under attack.”

On September 20, Bush spoke to a joint session of Congress about the attack, saying, “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.” He continued, “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” This speech became known as the Bush Doctrine.

Bush’s policies in the “war on terror” were at first very popular. His administration started the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which studied domestic communications, established a new Department of Homeland Security, instituted military trials for terrorists they apprehended, and passed the Patriot Act. As time went on, though, the president’s aggressive approach caused worry and disapproval among many officials and voters, making it difficult for him to win re-election.

Bush barely won the 2004 presidential election, defeating Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. This second term, though, was full of criticism. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, causing more than 1,800 deaths. It is the most expensive natural disaster in US history. The president was criticized for not acting fast enough to help the area.

A recession hit in 2007, and after Congress failed to pass a bill that would have provided support to banks, the stock market crashed on September 29, 2008.

After his second term ended, George W. Bush returned to Texas and said his time in office had been a “joyful” experience. He claimed to have kept the nation safe after the 9/11 terrorist attack and said, “The true history of my administration will be written fifty years from now.”

1. George W. Bush was the second son of a president, George H.W. Bush, to sit in the Oval Office. President John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were the first father-son presidents.
2. George W. Bush had to deal with a terrorist attack by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001.
3. George W. Bush experienced a controversial election to the White House, which was decided by the Supreme Court.

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