George Walker Bush

"I I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul." --Press Conference, White House, Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Best known for: Former Governor of Texas and former President of the United States, 2001-2010.

Born: July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, while his father, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, was a student at Yale.

Family: Parents: George and Barbara Bush. Brothers: Neil, Jeb, Marvin. Sisters: Dorothy, Robin, (Robin died of leukemia at age three). Bush's father graduated from Yale in June 1948. His parents then moved the family to Odessa, Texas, and his father began work in the oil business. During the summer of 1977, Bush met Laura Welch in Midland at a dinner at the home of their mutual friends Joe and Jan ONeill. They married just over three months later, on November 5, 1977. It was small service attended by their close friends and family. In 1981 their twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were born. They are named after their grandmothers. Their grandfather was the Vice-President of the United States at the time. The new Bush family lived in Midland, later moved to Dallas, and then Washington for a year when President Bush ran for President in 1988. Barbara and Jenna attend public school in Austin.

Education: Attended Phillips Academy prep school at Andover, then Yale from 1964 until 1968 and graduated with a major in history; played baseball during freshman year and rugby during junior and senior years; became a member of the super-secret Skull and Bones society, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather; later attended Harvard and earned a Masters of Business Administration in 1975. Bush was such a mediocre student that the dean of students at Andover was pessimistic about his chances of getting into Yale. The suggested that he have a backup option. Harvard Business school was a backup option that he had to take advantage of after the University of Texas law school turned him down. Harvard alums say the admissions process was somewhat mysterious. One of Bush's Harvard classmates was a circus barker.

Profession: In the West Texas energy business, George W. Bush started out researching who owned mineral rights. He later traded mineral and royalty interests and invested in drilling prospects. He had started his own oil and gas company by 1978, taking $17,000 from his education trust fund to set up Arbusto Energy (arbusto means Bush in Spanish). The company fell on hard times when oil prices fell. He made several attempts to revive the business, first by changing the company's name and later by merging with other companies. In 1983, Bushs company was rescued from failure when Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds, bought it. Bush became chief executive officer. Harken Energy Corporation acquired Spectrum 7 in 1986, after Spectrum had lost $400,000. In the buyout deal, Bush and his partners were given more than $2 million worth of Harken stock for the 180-well operation. Bush became a director and was hired as a "consultant" to Harken. He received another $600,000 of Harken stock, and has been paid between $42,000 and $120,000 a year. By the spring of 1987, Harken was in need of cash. So Bush and his fellow Harken officials met with Jackson Stephens, head of Stephens, Inc., an investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas (Stephens contributed $100,000 to the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 and gave another $100,000 to the Bush dinner committee in 1990.) Stephens arranged for Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to provide $25 million to Bushs company in return for a stock interest in Harken. As part of the deal, Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, a Saudi real estate tycoon and financier, joined Harken's board as a major investor. Stephens, UBS, and Bakhsh each had ties to the infamous, scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). In 1990, Bush sold his remaining stock options and left the oil business. Writer Jack Colhoun revealed some details of that stock sale, referring to Bush by his childhood nickname Junior:

On June 22, 1990, George Jr. sold two-thirds of his Harken stock for $848,560-a cool 200 percent profit. The move was well timed. One week after Junior sold his stock, Harken announced a $23.2 million loss in quarterly earnings and Harken stock dropped sharply, losing 60 percent of its value over the next six months. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops moved into Kuwait and 541,000 U.S. forces were deployed to the Gulf.

"There is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits in the weeks before he sold the $848,560 of Harken stock," asserted U.S. News & World Report. The magazine noted Harken appointed Junior to a 'fairness committee' to study possible economic restructuring of the company. Junior worked closely with financial advisers from Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, who concluded "only drastic action could save Harken."

A year earlier, in 1989, Bush prepared for his move from the oil business to the sports business when he helped assemble a group who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball team from Eddie Chiles. He and Rusty Rose served as managing general partners until Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1994.

Career: Pilot in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 until 1973. Attended flight school and flew F-102 aircraft with the 147th Fighter Wing, 111th Fighter Squadron of the Texas Air National Guard. Campaigned for U.S. Congress in 1978 in a large West Texas district that included his hometown of Midland. He defeated two opponents in the Republican primary, but lost in the general election to Democrat Kent Hance. After the election he went back to the energy business and built his oil company.

Bush was among the earliest financial contributors to the senate campaign of Phil Gramm in 1984. In 1986 and 1987, Bush worked on his father's presidential campaign as an adviser and speechwriter, moving to Washington in 1987 to work full time on the campaign. After the election he returned to Texas, then moved back to Washington in 1991 to work as an adviser on his father's re-election campaign. In 1994 George W. Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Ann Richards to become the 46th Governor of the State of Texas.

During his second four-year term as governor, Bush announced he was running for U.S. president. He had already been given the status of Republican front-runner in the 2000 presidential campaign. In his first four months of fund-raising, he collected record-setting contributions of $37 million.

Bush's first defeat came early in the campaign, however, with a big loss to Senator John McCain of Arizona in the New Hampshire Primary. After the sound defeat was clear in the state of New Hampshire, Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategist, was quoted congratulating McCain for winning, then oddly adding that the Bush campaign was prepared to win and beat McCain in all 50 states, although only 47 state contests remained. McCain skipped the Iowa Caucuses a week earlier, conceding that state to Bush. The razor-thin Bush win in the Alaska GOP Caucus was by a mere five votes over publisher Steve Forbes.

Bush ran his presidential campaign on a political philosophy called "compassionate conservatism," combining traditional Republican economic and defense platforms with improving education and aiding minorities. He won the Republican nomination, and he chose Dick Cheney, formerly Secretary of Defense under the presidency of George Bush and former Chief of Staff under President Gerald Ford. Cheney was serving as head of Bush's Vice-Presidential search committee when he was chosen.

During the campaign between Bush, Al Gore of the Democratic Party, Ralph Nader of the Green Party, and Patrick Buchanan of the Reform Party, the gap in polls narrowed between Bush and Gore to be the narrowest gap between candidates in decades. In the election, Florida's popular vote count was narrowly won by Bush who won fewer than 1000 votes more than Gore, prompting a machine-based recount followed by a second statewide hand recount. On December 9, 2000, over a month following the original vote, the Florida Supreme Court halted the second recount which in effect awarded the presidency to George W. Bush. Bush received a total of 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266.

The September 11, 2001 attacks had a large impact on the domestic and foreign affairs agendas of the recently elected president. The domestic priorities shifted to national security and the War on Terro. The USA PATRIOT act was passed by Congress expanding the search and surveillance powers of the FBI and state and local law-enforcement agencies. In an effort to halt international terrorism and locate and punish the responsible parties, invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq followed. The administration created the Department of Homeland Security in the US cabinet.

In 2004 Bush campaigned for his second presidential term against the Democratic Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Kerry emphasized lack of economic growth and job growth as well as the prudence of involvement in the Iraq War. Bush's criticisms of Kerry were Kerry's seemingly contradictory views on the Iraq War and fears that Kerry would raise taxes and increase government. Bush won the election carrying 31 of 50 states.

Through Bush's 8 years in office Bush's administration was characterized by a number of policies, events and controversies:

The War on Terrorism was officially announced after the September 11 attacks. Combined U.S. and British troops led the invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 to defeat the Taliban and to capture leaders of al Qaeda.

The education agenda included the No Child Left Behind Act instituted in 2002 intended to help close gaps between rich and poor students, and funding was increased for the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health

Reports of biological and chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction were the arguments leading the U.S. to invade Iraq on March 20, 2003.

December 2007 marked the beginning of a recession including the start of the subprime mortgage crisis, a sharp increase in oil prices, and significant job loss.

Debates continued about keeping the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay open as reports of prisoners held without being charged as well as questionable interrogation techniques used there and in Abu Ghraib, the American detention facility in Iraq, continued to surface.

PEPFAR or the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief provided medications and care abroad to millions of AIDS sufferers and their children.

The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) increased subsidies and changed Medicare benefits.

The President argued for a change in Social Security from government-funded to a privatized system.

Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in history resulting in thousands killed and thousands more displaced as well as significant destruction and economic loss, occurred in 2005. Bush's authorization of the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency were deemed as belated responses and as a grossly mismanaged response by many critics.

Bush nominated John Roberts as Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement on the Supreme Court, and Roberts was confirmed on September 29, 2005.

Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the Supreme court, and Alito was confirmed on January 31, 2006.

After completing his second term in office, former President George W. Bush and his family returned to Texas to live in Preston Hollow near Dallas.

Groundbreaking took place July 6, 2010 for the The George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas which will feature a museum and presidential library.

Bush's memoir, "Decision Points" available November, 2010.

Humorous Bush Quotes

[R]arely is the question asked... is our children learning?

Campaign speech, Florence, South Carolina, (January 11, 2000)

I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.

Speech in Saginaw, Michigan (29 September 2000)

...they want the federal government controlling Social Security, like it's some kind of federal program.

Speaking of "some [people] in Washington", and in support of his campaign plan to allow workers to invest some portion of their Social Security payroll taxes

They misunderestimated me.

Explaining his unexpected victories over GOP rival John McCain in the 2000 presidential primaries

My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire.

Presidential Radio Address (24 February 2001)

This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating.

New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base.

at the 2000 Al Smith dinner

Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter.

in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit in Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

You work three jobs? ... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that.

to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.

Reuters, May 5, 2000

Reading is the basics for all learning.

announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

George W. Bush, Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

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