George Walker Bush was born July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the first son of future President George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife Barbara (Pierce) Bush. He has five siblings; John (Jeb), Marvin, Neil, and Dorothy (Doro). In 1953, at the age of four, his first sister, Pauline (Robin), died after fighting leukemia. The Bush family had been involved in business and politics since the 1950s. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a former Wall Street banker and progressive Republican senator from Connecticut, and his father was a businessman, diplomat, vice president and president of the United States.
In 1948, George H.W. Bush moved the family to Midland, Texas, where he made his fortune in the oil business. Young George spent most of his childhood in Midland until the family moved to Houston in 1961. He began high school at Kincaid High School and then completed high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, just like his father. He was an all-around athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football. He’s one of four presidents who were cheerleaders in high school, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan where the other three. He was a fair student who was an occasional troublemaker. Even though his grades where not superior he managed to get accepted to Yale University in 1964, of course his family connections helped him get accepted.
George was a popular student at Yale and became president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Like his father and grandfather he became a member of Yale’s secretive Skull and Bones society whose membership contains some of American’s most powerful and elite family members. George’s grades continued to be unimpressive due to playing rugby and Yale’s social life, he had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in history in 1968, two weeks prior to graduating he enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard.
In 1968 the Vietnam War was at its height and although the Guard unit had a long waiting list, George was accepted through the unsolicited help of a family friend. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant by a special commission instead of attending Officer Candidate School. He earned his fighter pilot certification in June of 1970, for a plane that was being phased out of service. Despite irregular attendance and not maintaining his flight status he was honorably discharged on November 21, 1974 from the Air Force Reserve, 10 months early in order to attend Harvard Business School. He obtained his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Harvard Business School in 1975 and is the only president to earn a MBA.
At a backyard barbeque in 1977, George was introduced by friends Joe and Jan O’Neill to Laura Welch, a school teacher and librarian from Dawson Elementary School in Austin, Texas. After a quick three-month courtship, he proposed, and they were married on November 5, 1977. The couple settled in Midland, Texas where George continued to build his business. Their twin daughters were born in 1981 and were named Barbara and Jenna after their grandmothers, Barbara Bush and Jenna Welch.
Before George married Laura he struggled with alcohol and at the age of 30 was arrested for DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol). He was fined $150 and had his driving license suspended for 2 years. After getting married he joined the United Methodist Church, stabilized his drinking and became a born-again Christian in 1986, when he gave up alcohol entirely.
George made his first run for political office in 1978 but lost his first election as the U.S. Representative of the 19th District in Texas. Ten years later he moved his family to Washington D.C. to serve as a campaign advisor and media liaison with his father’s Presidential campaign.
In 1989 he assembled a group of investors that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball team and served as their managing general partner for five years. The Rangers did well and George sold his share of the team for a reported 17 times his initial investment. During this time he oversaw the creation of a $191 million Rangers stadium funded by local taxpayers.
George ran the Houston Marathon in 1993, finishing in 3 hours and 44 minutes. He is the first president to have finished a marathon at some point in their life. His time comes out to about 8.5 minutes per mile.
After his father’s lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton George decided to run for governor of Texas as a Republican. His affiliation with the Rangers and his family reputation helped him in the 1994 campaign against incumbent Democrat Ann Richards. George won the election with 53 percent of the vote and became the first child of a U.S. president to be elected a state governor. In 1998 he won the re-election with nearly 69% of the vote and became the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms. During his term as Texas’ governor, he oversaw 152 executions.
George began his quest for the presidency in 1999 and after a series of primary elections won the Republican presidential nomination. The 2000 presidential election was against Democratic candidate Al Gore. The election was close and late-night news declared one candidate the winner, then the other the winner. When all the votes were counted George had 246 electoral votes and Gore had 255, with 270 needed. Florida’s 25 electoral votes were held in the balance due to several counties reporting problems with balloting. After more than a month of recounts the official record showed George carrying Florida by just 537 votes, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the election and gave George the victory. Though Gore lost the election in the Electoral College he received over 543,000 more popular votes than Bush. Only three other president won by electoral votes but lost by the popular vote, John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and Benjamin Harrison in 1888.
When George W. Bush, at the age of 54, became the 43rd president of the United States, it was only the second time in American history that a president’s son went on to the White House. John Quincy Adams, elected the sixth president in 1824, was the son of John Adams, the second president. While John Adams had groomed his son to be president, George Bush, the 41st president, insisted he was surprised when the eldest of his six children became interested in politics, became governor of Texas, and then went on to the White House.
George’s Presidency changed with the events of September 11, 2001. In the deadliest attack ever on American soil, terrorists hijacked four airplanes, crashing two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers attempted to overtake the hijackers. George’s father, the 41st president, declared that his son “faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln.”
The war on terror had begun, and nine days after the attacks, George addressed a joint session of Congress, declaring to the world, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” George promised the American people that he would do all he could to prevent another terrorist attack. He formed the Homeland Security Department and enacted the Patriot Act. The Bush administration also built international coalitions to seek out and destroy Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.
On October 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the United States had begun military action in Afghanistan. The military operation was code-named Enduring Freedom. Bush said in a somber, televised address from the White House Treaty Room. “On my order, U.S. forces have begun strikes on terrorist camps of Al Qaeda and the military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,” The air assaults were joined by Britain, with intelligence and logistical support coming from several other nations, including France, Germany, Australia, and Canada.
The Enron Corporation filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection on December 2, 2001, the largest bankruptcy case in American history. The Bush administration had ties to key Enron executives, including CEO Kenneth Lay, but denied any involvement in the scandal. George called for new laws on corporate abuse.
Early decisions in the Bush Administration focused on public education. George’s first major initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, created reforms that raised standards and improved test scores in the public education system. He increased the size of Pell Grants available to college students to an all-time high and also created the Helping America’s Youth Initiative, led by his wife Laura. George also created a tax relief package, which reduced individual income tax rates and doubled the child tax credit, in addition to other reforms.
In September, 2002, the Bush administration announced that the United States would preemptively use military force if necessary to prevent threats to its national security by terrorists. Based on what would prove to be inaccurate intelligence reports, the Bush administration successfully obtained a UN Security Council resolution to return weapons inspectors to Iraq. Soon afterward, George declared that Iraq hadn’t complied with inspections, and on March 20, 2003, the United States launched a successful invasion of Iraq, quickly defeating the Iraqi military. Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, fell on April 9, 2003, and George personally declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003.
Prior to the fall of Baghdad the United States space program faced a setback when on February 01, 2003 when the seven-member crew of the shuttle Columbia died in an explosion. The United States wouldn’t attempt to send another ship into space until the space shuttle Discovery was sent on a mission to deliver repairs to the International Space Station on July 26, 2005.
George gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to give up power and leave Iraq in order to prevent the war. Unfortunately for Saddam he didn’t listen and on July 22, 2003 U.S. forces killed two of his sons when they launched an air attack on his Presidential Palace.
In 2004, George ran for re-election and won over Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry. During his second term, George pushed for immigration reform and eased environmental regulations. Although George enjoyed high approval ratings not everyone thought kindly of him. He was nearly assassinated in Georgia in May 2005 when a man threw a live grenade at George, but it didn’t explode.
The most memorable event in George’s second term is when Hurricane Katrina struck the southern coast of the United States with devastating effects in August 2005. The Bush administration was harshly criticized for an inadequate response by the federal government to the storm’s destruction. George asked his Father and former President Bill Clinton to lead a fund raising campaign to support those devastated by the hurricane.
George and Laura worked together to establish the Preserve America Initiative and the National Parks Centennial Initiative, and George asked Congress to provide more than $6.5 billion to repair and improve the National Park System. He also designated nearly 195,000 square miles of the central Pacific Ocean as national monuments and preserved an additional 1,000,000 square miles of fish habitats.
In January 2007 George announced his plan for a “surge” of more than 20,000 new United States troops in the Iraq War to combat the insurgency. Following the surge, total violence in Iraq was drastically reduced, but the U.S. death toll for the war reached 4,000 on March 23. Later, Obama admitted the surge had worked better than anyone anticipated, and in retrospect, 60 percent of Americans approved of the decision.
As George entered the final year of his presidency, the country faced enormous challenges. It was fighting two foreign wars, and the budget surplus left by the Clinton administration had transformed into a multi-trillion-dollar debt. In the fall of 2008, the country was hit with a severe credit crisis that sent the stock market into free fall and led to massive layoffs. The Bush administration scrambled and encouraged Congress to enact a controversial $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to bail out the housing and banking industries.
It was time for George to leave office, especially since his approval rating dropped to 24 percent in October 2008, he actually tied with former President Richard Nixon for the lowest approval rating in history. His also had one of the highest approval ratings after the 911 Terrorist Attacks at 90 percent.
On November 04, 2008 Barack Obama is elected as the next President of the United States. Before leaving office George passed several laws to try to stop the countries financial tailspin.
George left behind much unfinished business and the country remained politically divided. Critics laid much of the country’s misfortunes at his feet, while supporters defended him for his strong leadership during one of the country’s most dangerous periods. In January 2010, he united with former President Bill Clinton to lead a major fund raising relief effort for the victims of the devastating Haitian earthquake.
After years of leading a relatively quiet life in Texas, Bush returned to the media spotlight in 2013 for the opening of the George W. Bush Library and Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The other living former presidents, including Bill Clinton and George’s own father, attended the event as did President Barack Obama. Bush joked that “There was a time in my life when I wasn’t likely to be found at a library, much less found one.” Speaking on a more serious note, George seemed to defend his time as president when he said, “When people come to this library and research this administration, they’re going to find out we stayed true to our convictions.”
George is the author of two bestselling books, “Decision Points,” his memoirs and “41: A Portrait of My Father.” One of George’s favorite post-presidency hobbies is painting and has finished over 30 portraits of world leaders using oil and canvas.
In addition, George remains actively involved in issues of national and global concern through the George W. Bush Institute that is operated by the George W. Bush Foundation. He continues to emphasize education, global health, human freedom, and support of the military.
Laura Bush has focused her time in public life on her lifelong passions, early childhood education, books, reading, and the arts. The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries provides grants each year to schools in critical need of library books. She founded the Texas Book Festival and, as First Lady, the National Book Festival to encourage and celebrate the nation’s greatest authors.
He and Laura are proud parents to their twin daughters and of their granddaughters Margaret Laura “Mila” and Poppy Louise Hager. The Bush family also includes two cats, Bob and Bernadette.
George W. Bush
http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu/en/The-President-and-Family/George-W-Bush.aspx
http://www.biography.com/people/george-w-bush-9232768
https://www.facebook.com/georgewbush
http://millercenter.org/president/gwbush
https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/georgewbush
http://www.bushcenter.org/people/george-w-bush.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
Office of George W. Bush
The George W. Bush Childhood Home
http://www.bushchildhoodhome.com/
George W. Bush Timeline
http://www.american-presidents-history.com/george-w-bush-timeline.html
Presidential Key Events
http://millercenter.org/president/gwbush/key-events
Bush Jr.’s Skeleton Closet
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm
Ten Facts About George Bush You Did Not Know
http://ivn.us/2013/04/25/ten-facts-about-george-bush-you-did-not-know/
10 Unique and Interesting Facts About George W. Bush
https://uniquefacts.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/10-unique-and-interesting-facts-about-george-w-bush/
25 Facts About George W. Bush
http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/stories/11054/george-w-bush-facts
By George W. Bush
Bush
Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House
George W. Bush: The American Presidents Series: The 43rd President, 2001-2009
The Faith of George W. Bush
The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment
George W. Bush on God and Country: The President Speaks Out About Faith, Principle, and Patriotism
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
https://www.youtube.com/user/
George W. Bush – AutoBiography – Decision Points
George W. Bush_Biography
George W. Bush The Night of 9-11-01
George W. Bush: Most Controversial President? – Fast Facts | History
“The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy” by @TheBushCente
Presidential Farewell Speech George W Bush