George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America. Originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001, Bush was elected president in the 2000 presidential election and re-elected in the 2004 presidential election. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, and is the eldest son of former United States president George H. W. Bush.
Following college, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses, and in 1978 made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before returning to politics in a campaign for Governor of Texas. He defeated Ann Richards and was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. Bush won the presidency in 2000 as the Republican candidate in a close and controversial contest, in which he lost the nationwide popular vote, but won the electoral votes.
As president, Bush pushed through a $1.3 trillion tax cut program and the No Child Left Behind Act. He has also pushed for socially conservative efforts such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Defense of Marriage Amendment, and faith-based welfare initiatives. In October 2001, after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush declared a global War on Terrorism and ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy Al-Qaeda, and to capture Osama bin Laden. In March 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 and that the war was necessary for the protection of the United States.
Running as a self-described "war president" in the midst of the Iraq War, Bush won re-election in 2004 ;his presidential campaign against Senator John Kerry was successful despite controversy over Bush's prosecution of the Iraq War and his handling of the economy. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism. His domestic approval has declined from 90 percent (the highest ever recorded by The Gallup Organization) immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks to 26 percent (in a Newsweek poll taken in June 2007), the lowest level for any sitting president in 35 years. Only Harry Truman and Richard Nixon scored lower.
(1946-present) 43st President
Served: 2001-Present
Party: Republican
Vice President(s): Dick Cheney
Notable Events: Attacks of 9/11, War on Terroism, No Child Left Behind Act, Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Defense of Marriage Amendment
Following college, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses, and in 1978 made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before returning to politics in a campaign for Governor of Texas. He defeated Ann Richards and was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. Bush won the presidency in 2000 as the Republican candidate in a close and controversial contest, in which he lost the nationwide popular vote, but won the electoral votes.
As president, Bush pushed through a $1.3 trillion tax cut program and the No Child Left Behind Act. He has also pushed for socially conservative efforts such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Defense of Marriage Amendment, and faith-based welfare initiatives. In October 2001, after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush declared a global War on Terrorism and ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy Al-Qaeda, and to capture Osama bin Laden. In March 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 and that the war was necessary for the protection of the United States.
