George W Bush
- Addison Davis
On July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut one of our future presidents would be born his name is George W. Bush. Growing up, he was the oldest of six children from his mother and father, Barbara Pierce Bush and George Herbert Walker Bush. The Bush family has always been with politics, even in the 50’s. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a progressive Republican senator from Connecticut and a banker on Wall Street His father was also involved with politics, he was a businessman, diplomat, a vice president and president of the United States. At just two years old, George H. W. Bush decided to move the whole family to Midland, Texas where he would make it big in the oil business. Boy George mostly grew up in Midland and went to school there up until seventh grade when they moved to Houston, Texas. At that point George W. Bush was sent to Massachusetts to go to school at Phillips Academy. At Phillips Academy he was a Star Athlete playing baseball, basketball and football. He was an alright student and occasionally got into trouble, but nevertheless, he was accepted into Yale with the help of family connections. At Yale, he put his social life in front of studies, but this being said he was still invited into the invitation only Skull and Bones society. Just before his graduation George enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. He was again accepted with some help of a family friend. In 1970 George received his fighter pilot certificate, but on November 21, 1974 he was honorably discharged from the Air Force. After that, he decided to go back to school so, he went to Harvard Business School to get his Masters of Business Administration degree. After that he went back to his hometown to enter the oil business working with a friend. Later on, after he had had some experience with the business he started his own oil and gas firm. In 1977, he would meet his future wife Laura Welch, who was a school teacher and a librarian at the time. After just three months him and Laura decided to take the next step so George proposed and were married on November 5, 1977. After they were married, they settled in Midland, Texas, so George can continue to work on his business. Prior to his marriage George had a serious drinking problem and then joined the United Methodist Church and was a born-again Christian. In 1981, George and Laura had their first children, which turned out to be twin girls. Five years later, Bush sold his struggling oil business to Harken Energy Corporation for stock a spot on its board of directors. Around when this happened George had completely quit drinking and became deeply involved in his church. When George’s dad was running for president, George W. Bush and Laura moved his family to Washington, DC to help his father’s campaign. After George H. W. Bush won the election, George W. Bush and Laura Bush moved back to Texas and shortly after getting involved with investors trying to purchase the Texas Rangers. George W. Bush was quickly qualified as their leader and made amazing trades. After those trades the team did excellent and he eventually sold his team for seventeen times his initial investment. In 1992 after his father lost to Bill Clinton in a reelection, George W. Bush decided to run for governor of Texas as a Republican. His family reputation and his affiliation with the Rangers helped him win the 1994 campaign against Ann Richards. The election was tight the whole time, but George won the election with a fifty-three percent vote and was also the first governor to have a father as president. He was also the first Texas Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms. When Bush was a governor, he mainly appealed to republicans but also was well known for bipartisan governing. He combined personal responsibility and limited government. Since Bush was governor during a surplus he pushed for tax cuts and better education. He changed teachers’ salaries to student performance on standardized tests and lowered the age of being tried in an adult court.[1]In 2000, Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney, who had been a former congressman and U. S. defense secretary under George H. W. Bush, had just defeated Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, U. S. Senator from Connecticut, by a very slim margin of 271-266 electoral votes even though Gore had beaten Bush with the popular vote by 48. 4% to Bush’s 47. 9%. This has been the fourth time this had ever happened in U. S. History.[2]One of the first things and one of the best domestic achievements Bush’s Administration worked on was public education. The first major initiative was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, this helped the public education system and raised test scores. Bush increased Peel Grants available to college students and they were raised to an all-time high. The tax relief package was another thing Bush was well known for. This package reduced individual taxes and doubles child tax credit and other reforms. On September 11, 2001 the most deadly attack on American soil happened unexpectedly and Bush’s Presidency was completely altered. On this day, terrorists from the group Al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes, two of the airplanes were ordered to hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Another was told to hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The final plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers made a bold move to overtake the hijackers. When this happened President Bush declared war on Terrorism. This became an assault on anyone who had the twisted mind to support terrorism around the world. As a result of this effort the Afghanistan War started in October of 2001 and then the War in Iraq in 2003. This was actually Bush’s greatest failures in doing this it made the United States look like we were marked by fear, confusion and vulnerability.[3]George Bush’s greatest domestic failure was the way he tried to handle Hurricane Katrina, his attempt was just too slow. Bush sent in federal troops in days after the catastrophe and it took even longer for the troops to get there because of the road conditions. People were dying on top of their roofs of starvation and thirst waiting for some type of evacuation. News teams got there the first day it all went down asking questions about why troops were not showing up to bring aid to all of the unfortunate people. Bush’s administration was heavily criticized for the way this was handled and it showed when Bush’s public support went from sixty percent to forty-nine percent within two weeks.[4]George Bush did not have a lot of foreign achievements, but one of the best has to be humanitarian aid in Africa. In 2003 President Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, otherwise known as PEPFAR, was a global program to fight AIDS. This was the largest effort ever created to fight a disease. In July 2008 a reauthorization was passed to add funding to tuberculosis and malaria as well, all of this cost 48 billion U. S. Dollars. This is all a part of President Bush’s emphasis on foreign aid in Africa. Thanks to George Bush tons of Africans get thousands of dollars of medicine for free.[5]But like all presidencies they must come to an end. Many people were against him having bumper stickers saying “ Bush Lied, People Died”. Other people thought he was a not really a republican. Despite all of that most people will still talk about President Bush and say he an average leader who achieved much redemption just as the United States gave up.[6]
Bibliography
“ Bush’s Biggest Achievements.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
“ Bush’s Legacy.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
George Bush’s Greatest Achievements and Failures.” Accessed December 7, 2014. http://siirispolitics. blogspot. com/2010/11/what-are-george-w-bushs-greatest. html.
“ George W. Bush,”, accessed December 7, 2014, http://www. history. com/topics/us-presidents/george-w-bush.
George W. Bush.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
George Walker Bush. (2014). The Biography. com website. Retrieved 08: 26, Dec 07, 2014, fromhttp://www. biography. com/people/george-w-bush-9232768.
[1]George Walker Bush. (2014). The Biography. com website. Retrieved 08: 26, Dec 07, 2014, fromhttp://www. biography. com/people/george-w-bush-9232768.
[2]“ George W. Bush,”, accessed December 7, 2014, http://www. history. com/topics/us-presidents/george-w-bush.
[3]George W. Bush.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
[4]George Bush’s Greatest Achievements and Failures.” Accessed December 7, 2014. http://siirispolitics. blogspot. com/2010/11/what-are-george-w-bushs-greatest. html.
[5]“ Bush’s Biggest Achievements.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
[6]“ Bush’s Legacy.” N. p., n. d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
