George W. Bush (President McCain)

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-fourth and current President of the United States. He served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and as the Vice President of the United States in the administration of John McCain (2001–2009).

Bush is the eldest son of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush. After graduating from Yale University, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards to become Governor of Texas in 1994.

In 2008, Bush launched a successful campaign to succeed McCain as president, defeating Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency; operations were conducted in Syria, and Zimbabwe while he was a strongly supported the Concert of Democracies in demanding that North Korea and Iran ceased its nuclear weapons programme. Domestically, Bush followed President McCain's economic and domestic reforms, including energy independence, education and health care reforms.

Early years
George Walker Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut on July 6, 1946. Bush was the first child of George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush (born Pierce).

He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with his four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a Senator from Connecticut, and his father served as U.S. President from 1989 to 1993.

Education
Bush, as a child, was not accepted for admission by St. John's School in Houston, Texas, a prestigious private school. Instead, he attended The Kinkaid School, the private school from which St. John's had broken away.

Bush attended Phillips Academy, an all-boys private high school in Andover, Massachusetts, where he played baseball and during his senior year was the head cheerleader. Following in his father's footsteps, Bush attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968, receiving a Bachelor's degree in history in 1968. As a college senior, Bush became a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society. By his own characterization, he was an average student.

In 1970, Bush applied to, but was not accepted into, the University of Texas School of Law. Beginning in the fall of 1973, Bush attended Harvard University, where he earned an MBA.

Texas Air National Guard
In May 1968, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. After training, he was assigned to duty in Houston, flying Convair F-102s out of Ellington Air Force Base. Critics allege that Bush was favorably treated due to his father's political standing, citing his selection as a pilot and his irregular attendance. In June 2005, the United States Department of Defense released all the records of Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, which remain in its official archives.

In late 1972 and early 1973, he drilled with the Alabama Air National Guard, having moved to Memphis to work on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Winton M. Blount. In October 1973, Bush was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard and transferred to the Air Force inactive reserves. He was discharged from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974, at the end of his six-year service obligation.

Bush had multiple accounts of alcohol abuse. In one instance, Bush was arrested near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine for driving under the influence of alcohol at the age of thirty on September 4, 1976. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150, and had his Maine driver's license suspended until 1978. Bush gave up alcohol in 1986.

Marriage and family
In 1977, he was introduced by friends at a backyard barbecue to Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. Bush proposed to her after a three-month courtship and they were married on November 5 of that year. The couple settled in Midland, Texas. Bush left his family's Episcopal Church to join his wife's United Methodist Church. In 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara; they graduated from high school in 2000 and from the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, respectively, in 2004.

Bush says his wife has had a stabilizing effect on his private life, and attributes to her influence his 1986 decision to stop drinking. While Governor of Texas, Bush said of his wife, "I saw an elegant beautiful woman who turned out not only to be elegant and beautiful, but very smart and willing to put up with my rough edges, and I must confess has smoothed them off over time."

Early career
In 1978, Bush ran for the House of Representatives from Texas's 19th congressional district. His opponent, Kent Hance, portrayed him as being out of touch with rural Texans; Bush lost the election by 6,000 votes. He returned to the oil industry, and began a series of small, independent oil exploration companies. He created Arbusto Energy, and later changed the name to Bush Exploration. In 1984, his company merged with the larger Spectrum 7, and Bush became chairman. The company was hurt by a decline in oil prices, and as a result, it folded into Harken Energy. Bush served on the board of directors for Harken. Questions of possible insider trading involving Harken have arisen, though the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation of Bush concluded that he did not have enough insider information before his stock sale to warrant a case.

Bush moved his family to Washington, D.C. in 1988 to work on his father's campaign for the U.S. presidency. He worked as a campaign adviser and served as liaison to the media; he assisted his father by campaigning across the country. Returning to Texas after the successful campaign, he purchased a share in the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in April 1989, where he served as managing general partner for five years. He actively led the team's projects and regularly attended its games, often choosing to sit in the open stands with fans. The sale of Bush's shares in the Rangers in 1998 brought him over $15 million from his initial $800,000 investment.

In December 1991, Bush was one of seven people named by his father to run his father's 1992 Presidential re-election campaign; Bush's title was "campaign advisor". The prior month, Bush had been asked by his father to tell White House chief of staff John H. Sununu that he should resign.

Governor of Texas: 1995-2000
As Bush's brother, Jeb, sought the governorship of Florida, Bush declared his candidacy for the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. His campaign focused on four themes: welfare reform, tort reform, crime reduction, and education improvement. Bush's campaign advisers were Karen Hughes, Joe Allbaugh, and Karl Rove.

After easily winning the Republican primary, Bush faced popular Democratic incumbent Governor Ann Richards. In the course of the campaign, Bush pledged to sign a bill allowing Texans to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons. Governor Richards had vetoed the bill, but Bush signed it after he became governor. According to senior editor Joshua Green, the race "...featured a rumor that she was a lesbian, along with a rare instance of such a tactic's making it into the public record—when a regional chairman of the Bush campaign allowed himself, perhaps inadvertently, to be quoted criticizing Richards for "appointing avowed homosexual activists" to state jobs.". Bush won the general election with 53.5 percent against Richards' 45.9 percent.

Bush used a budget surplus to push through Texas's largest tax-cut ($2 billion). He extended government funding for organizations providing education of the dangers of alcohol and drug use and abuse, and helping to reduce domestic violence.

In 1998, Bush won re-election with a record 69 percent of the vote. He became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms. For most of Texas history, governors served two-year terms; a constitutional amendment extended those terms to four-years starting in 1975. In his second term, Bush promoted faith-based organizations and enjoyed high approval ratings. He proclaimed June 10, 2000 to be Jesus Day in Texas, a day on which he "urge[d] all Texans to answer the call to serve those in need."

Critics contended that during his tenure, Texas ranked near the bottom in environmental evaluations, but supporters pointed to his efforts to raise the salaries of teachers and improved educational test scores.

Throughout Bush's first term, national attention focused on him as a potential future presidential candidate. Following his re-election, speculation soared. Within a year, he decided to seek the Republican nomination for the presidency.

2000 presidential campaign

 * Main article: United States presidential election, 2000

On June 12, 1999, while Governor of Texas, Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States. With no incumbent running, Bush entered a large field of candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Along with Bush, that field of candidates consisted of John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, Orrin Hatch, Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, John Kasich and Robert C. Smith.

Bush portrayed himself as a compassionate conservative. He campaigned on a platform that included increasing the size of the United States Armed Forces, cutting taxes, improving education, and aiding minorities. By early 2000, the race had centered on Bush and McCain.

Bush won the Iowa caucuses, and although he was heavily favored to win the New Hampshire primary, he trailed John McCain by 33% and lost that primary. However, the major battle of the Republican primaries was the the South Carolina primary, which was exceptionally controversial. An anonymous smear campaign began against McCain, delivered by push polls, faxes, e-mails, flyers, and audience plants. The smears claimed that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock (the McCains' dark-skinned daughter was adopted from Bangladesh), that his wife Cindy was a drug addict, that he was a homosexual, and that he was a "Manchurian Candidate" who was either a traitor or mentally unstable from his North Vietnam POW days.

The Bush campaign strongly denied any involvement with the attacks, with George W. Bush condemning the smear campaign. Incensed, McCain ran ads accusing Bush of lying and comparing the governor to Bill Clinton, which Bush said was "about as low a blow as you can give in a Republican primary". McCain pulled an upset by defeating Bush in the South Carolina primary by the razor thin margin of 47 percent to 46 percent. After the South Carolina primaries all candidates except Bush and McCain had either dropped out of the race or suspended their campaigns, and by March all had endorsed one of the two remaining candidates.

After a long series of hard fought contests George W. Bush suspended his campaign on March 4 due to Super Tuesday loses in February. Three days later he endorsed John McCain, while also appologising for the smear campaign, claiming he himself had nothing to do with it. His appology was vital in repairing the relation to a pre-primary level.

Vice Presidency: 2001-2009
As Vice President, Bush generally took on a low-profile while recognizing the constitutional limits of the office; he avoided decision making or criticizing McCain in any way. As had become customary, he and Laura Bush moved into the Vice President's residence at Number One Observatory Circle, a few blocks from the White House. The Bushes attended a large number of public and ceremonial events in their positions, including many state funerals, which became a common joke for comedians. Mrs. Bush found the funerals largely beneficial, saying, "George met with many current or future heads of state at the funerals he attended, enabling him to forge personal relationships that were important to President McCain." As the President of the Senate, Bush stayed in contact with members of Congress, and kept the president informed on occurrences on Capitol Hill.

On September 11, 2001 Bush was at his office in Washington D.C. when airliners hijacked by Islamist terrorists struck the World Trade Center towers in New York. He was immediately evacuated by Secret Service agents to the cellar of the building. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush remained physically apart from McCain for security reasons. For a period, Bush stayed at an "undisclosed location" (Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania), out of public view.

In his position, Bush chaired a special task force that was the driving force of the McCain Administration's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the American Education Advancement Act. He also influenced McCain to authorize U.S. military intervention in Haiti and Liberia to protect U.S. interests in 2003-2004, despite meeting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.

McCain and Bush ran for reelection in 2004. The Democratic Party candidate was Howard Dean, the former Governor of Vermont. As foreign policy and the economy was the dominant theme throughout the election campaign, the McCain-Bush ticket could capitalize on their experience and popularity while Dean's campaign suffered from several miscues. As a result, he won the Vice Presidential debate against Evan Bayh.

Early into his second term as Vice President, Bush and his aides were planning a run for the presidency in 2008. By the end of 2006, a committee had been established and over four million dollars raised for Bush.

2008 presidential campaign

 * Main article: United States presidential election, 2008

Bush had been planning a presidential run since as early as 2006, and entered the Republican primary for President of the United States in October 2007. He was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he had a strong base within the party, financial support of most of the party establishment and received endorsements from both conservative and moderate Republicans, including senators Saxby Chambliss, Mitch McConnell and Fred Thompson, governors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, retired generals James L. Jones and Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., former First Lady Nancy Reagan, former President George H. W. Bush and the popular President John McCain.

Bush pledged to continue McCain's policies, with increased focus on issues such as education, energy, military reforms, continue the War on Terrorism and AIDS relief.

However, Bush got an unexpected challenger when Representative Ron Paul of Texas officially entered the race for the Republican candidacy for president on March 12, 2007. However, initial opinion polls during the first three quarters of 2007 showed Ron Paul consistently receiving support from 3% or less of those polled, and was thus not a serious threat to Bush.

Although the campaign was focused mainly on domestic issues, proposed reforms of Social Security and Medicare, health care, competing plans for tax relief, energy policy, defense and foreign policy (with the War on Terrorism in focus) was often at issue.

On May 17, 2008, with the general election campaign between Bush and Clinton heating up, Bush announced at a political gathering in Texas that he had chosen Secretary of State Colin Powell as his running mate, and that he had accepted the offer. The move was applauded by many Republicans, both the conservative and moderates, and analysts concluded that Bush's experience as Vice President and Governor of Texas and Powell's experience as Secretary of Defense would secure both domestic and foreign issues, and that the Bush-Powell ticket be a difficult team for the Democrats to defeat in November. In response to this, Clinton named John Edwards as her running mate two days later.

Bush's polls remained high during the spring and summer, and he appeared often with President McCain, who had a approval rating over 70%. On the other hand, Clinton's hopes for the presidency were trounced when her running mate John Edwards admitted on August 8 that he had had an extramarital affair during the campaign. The Democrats suffered a 8% drop in the polls as a result, and both Edwards himself and the party establishment urged Clinton to replace him.

At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota between September 1 - September 4, Bush was nominated as the Presidential Nominee while Powell was nominated as the Vice Presidential Nominee. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado between August 25 – August 28, Clinton was nominated as the Presidential Nominee while Joe Biden was nominated as the Vice Presidential Nominee.

Despite the fact that Clinton had changed her vice presidential candidate, the damage had been done. While Bush, capitalizing on his advantage with voters on moral issues, surged ahead in the polls, Clinton's campaign kept dropping. In the first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi on September 26, 2008, Bush capitalized on his experience as Vice President, and won the debate. After a strong performance in the final two debates (October 7 at the Belmont University and October 15 at the Hofstra University) and the vice presidential debate (October 2 at the Washington University in St. Louis) by the Bush/Powell ticket, the race was by most analysts decided, with Bush at 54% and Clinton at 45%.

Bush defeated Clinton and her running mate, John Edwards, in the Electoral College, by 298 to 240. In the nationwide popular vote, Bush took 53.6% of the ballots cast while Clinton received 45.7%. Bush became the first serving Vice President to be elected President since since his father George H. W. Bush won the election in 1988, and the second since Martin Van Buren in 1836.

On November 27, President-elect Bush announced that he would not seek reelection come 2012 due to health conditions relating to his age.

Presidency
Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, succeeding John McCain. He entered office in a different world than in 2000; with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the focus on the international War on Terrorism.

Despite facing some criticism from some Washington politicians, Bush decided to keep many of the cabinet holders from the previous McCain administration, most notably Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Amongst the new cabinet members were Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State and James L. Jones as National Security Advisor.

States admitted to the Union

 * Puerto Rico: July 4, 2009