george w bush short biography

George W. Bush

George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States. He led his country's response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and initiated the Iraq War in 2003.

Who Is George W. Bush?

Born in July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States. He narrowly won the Electoral College vote in 2000, in one of the closest and most controversial elections in American history. Bush led the United States' response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and initiated the Iraq War. Before his presidency, Bush was a businessman and served as governor of Texas.

George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. He is the eldest of six children of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. 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, and 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, attending school there until the seventh grade. The family moved to Houston in 1961, and George W. Bush was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. There he was an all-around athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football. He was a fair student and had a reputation for being an occasional troublemaker. Despite this, family connections helped him enter Yale University in 1964.

George W. Bush was a popular student at Yale, becoming president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and also playing rugby. For Bush, grades took a back seat to Yale’s social life. Despite his privileged background, he was comfortable with all kinds of people and had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Like his father and grandfather before him, George W. Bush became a member of Yale’s secretive Skull and Bones society, an invitation-only club whose membership contains some of American’s most powerful and elite family members.

Two weeks before graduation, at the end of his draft deferment, George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. It was 1968 and the Vietnam War was at its height. Though the Guard unit had a long waiting list, Bush was accepted through the unsolicited help of a family friend. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he earned his fighter pilot certification in June of 1970. Despite irregular attendance and questions about whether he had completely fulfilled his military obligation, Bush was honorably discharged from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974.

Personal Life

After his Guard duty, George W. Bush continued his education, enrolling at Harvard Business School, where he earned a Masters of Business Administration degree in 1975. He then returned to Midland and entered the oil business, working for a family friend, and later started his own oil and gas firm. In 1977, at a backyard barbeque, Bush was introduced by friends to Laura Welch, a school teacher and librarian. After a quick three-month courtship, he proposed, and they were married on November 5, 1977. The couple settled in Midland, Texas, where Bush continued to build his business.

George W. Bush credits his wife for bringing his life in order. Prior to marriage, he had several embarrassing episodes with alcohol. Soon after marrying Laura, he joined the United Methodist Church and became a born-again Christian. In 1981, the couple enjoyed the arrival of twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. In 1986, Bush sold his struggling oil business to Harken Energy Corporation for stock and a seat on its board of directors. It was also at this time that he quit drinking and became deeply involved in his church.

Governor of Texas

In 1988, George W. Bush moved his family to Washington DC to work on his father’s bid for the White House, participating in campaign activities and meeting influential people. After his father’s victory, he returned to Texas, and in 1989 joined a group of investors purchasing the Texas Rangers baseball team. George W. Bush quickly emerged as the group’s leader and made some savvy trades. The team did well and Bush earned a reputation as a successful businessman. In 1998, Bush sold his share of the team for a reported 17 times his initial investment.

After his father’s 1992 reelection loss to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush 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. His campaign focused on welfare and tort reform, crime reduction, and education improvement. The contest was contentious and bare knuckled, with accusations of financial impropriety on one side, and homosexuality on the other. Bush 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, Bush became the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms.

As governor, George W. Bush appealed to moderate Republicans and Christian conservatives in his own party and earned a reputation for bipartisan governing. He implemented the philosophy of "compassionate conservatism," which combined limited government with concern for the underprivileged and personal responsibility. The previous gubernatorial administration left the Texas treasury in a surplus, so Bush pushed for a tax cut and increased funding for education. He promoted educational reform, tying teachers’ salaries to student performance on standardized tests, and signed into law legislation lowering the age at which juveniles could be tried in adult courts.

First Term as President

In 1999, George W. Bush began his quest for the presidency, and after a contentious series of primary elections, he won the Republican presidential nomination. The 2000 presidential election pitting George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Al Gore was close and controversial. As Election Day unfolded, there was no clear winner. The late-night news declared one candidate the winner, then the other the winner. By early the next morning, Bush had 246 electoral votes and Gore had 255, with 270 needed to win. Florida’s 25 electoral votes were held in the balance where several counties reported problems with balloting. After more than a month of recounts and legal maneuvering, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the election, giving George Bush the victory. Though Gore lost the election in the Electoral College (271 to 266) he received over 543,000 more popular votes than Bush, a result that further complicated Bush’s victory.

In the first two years of his presidency, George W. Bush enjoyed a political majority in both Congressional houses but faced a strongly divided government. At times, his political rhetoric fueled this divide. Taking a budget surplus left by the previous Democratic administration, Bush pushed through a $1.35 trillion tax cut to stimulate the economy, but critics contended it favored the wealthy. His administration prompted further controversy when he announced the U.S. would not abide by the Kyoto Protocol for reducing green-house gas emissions, citing potential harm to the U.S. economy.

9/11 and Iraq War

On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial jetliners. Three of them hit their targets in New York and Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed into a farmer’s field in Pennsylvania. The war on terror had begun, and President George W. Bush promised the American people that he would do all he could to prevent another terrorist attack. A comprehensive strategy was formed with the creation of the Homeland Security Department, the Patriot Act and the authorization of intelligence gathering that, for a time, included monitoring international phone calls made by U.S. citizens. The Bush administration also built international coalitions to seek out and destroy Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban government was said to be harboring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

As the conflict raged on, United States military forces in Afghanistan began transferring Taliban fighters and suspected Al Qaeda members to a special prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a permanent U.S. naval base. Hundreds of prisoners were held there as enemy combatants, a classification given by the Bush administration that stated terror detainees were not protected by the Geneva Conventions. As a result, many were subject to enhanced interrogation techniques, which in the opinion of various international organizations, including the Red Cross, amounted to torture.

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 or "rogue states" especially any that possessed weapons of mass destruction. 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, Bush 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 Bush personally declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003. With a power vacuum in place, Iraq soon fell into a sectarian civil war.

Second Term as President

In 2004, George W. Bush ran for re-election. Though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not going well, and his efforts in Social Security reform had met with great resistance, Bush's political core remained supportive, and he was able to win reelection over Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry in the November election. During his second term, Bush pushed for immigration reform, which received criticism from many conservatives, and eased environmental regulations, which received criticism from many liberals. The Bush administration's poor response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans further pushed down his favorability rating.

In 2008, as George W. Bush entered the final year of his presidency, the country faced enormous challenges. The United States was fighting two foreign wars, and the budget surplus left by the Clinton administration had transformed into a multi-trillion-dollar debt—the effects of military spending, tax cuts, and slow economic growth. In the early 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.

Life After the White House

George W. Bush left office in January, 2009, leaving behind much unfinished business and low approval ratings. 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. Bush and his wife settled in Dallas, Texas, where he participated in the building of his presidential library and wrote his memoir "Decision Points." At the request of President Barack Obama, Bush and former president Bill Clinton led private fundraising efforts in the United States for disaster relief, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

After years of leading a relatively quiet life in Texas, Bush returned to the media spotlight in 2013. He was on hand for the opening of the George W. Bush Library and Museum on the grounds of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The other living former presidents, including Bill Clinton and Bush'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," according to Fox News. Speaking on a more serious note, Bush seemed to defend his time as president. "When people come to this library and research this administration, they’re going to find out we stayed true to our convictions," he said.

George W. Bush played up to his Texas roots through most of his political life. For both his supporters and detractors, it provided reasons for their support and criticism. For some, his folksy image and manner suggested he was "not ready for prime time," politically adept, but not a statesman at a time when the country need one. For others, he was perceived as a president of big ideas who eagerly embraced large visions and the risks involved. His supporters credit him with re-establishing America’s place as the world’s uncontested leader. Internationally, he has been maligned for his "cowboy diplomacy" in foreign affairs. Like many presidents before him, the George W. Bush presidency will find its place in history balanced against his successes and failures.

In July 2013, George W. Bush made history when he joined President Barack Obama in Africa in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of Osama bin Laden's first attack on the United States—marking the first meeting on foreign soil to commemorate an act of terrorism between two U.S. presidents.

Bush ran into some health problems later that summer. On August 6, he underwent surgery to insert a stent in his heart to open a blockage in one of his arteries. The blockage discovered during his annual physical. Through a spokesperson, Bush expressed his gratitude to "the skilled medical professionals who have cared for him," according to the Associated Press. Bush also thanked "his family, friends, and fellow citizens for their prayers and well wishes. And he encourages us all to get our regular check-ups."

That October, it was revealed that Bush's heart condition was more serious than originally described. He had a 95% blockage in that artery before his surgery, according to CNN.com. If he had not been treated, Bush would have been at risk of having a heart attack.

As time brought him further away from his tenure in the White House, Bush came to be viewed as more of a wise elder, offering measured tones to contrast the combustibility of the 45th president, Donald Trump. When Trump sought to blame both sides of the racially charged protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the summer of 2017, Bush and his father put out a joint statement that read, "America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms." The following winter, the younger Bush refuted President Trump's insistence that reports of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election were "fake news," saying there was "pretty clear evidence" that the Russians had gotten involved.

In January 2018, CNN released a poll showing that 61 percent of Americans held a favorable view of the 43rd president, up from the meager 33 percent when he left office nine years earlier.

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Quick facts.

• Name: George W. Bush
• Birth Year: 1946
• Birth date: July 6, 1946
• Birth State: Connecticut
• Birth City: New Haven
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States. He led his country's response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and initiated the Iraq War in 2003.
• U.S. Politics
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• Phillips Academy
• Harvard Business School
• Yale University
• The Kinkaid School
• Occupations
• U.S. Governor

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: George W. Bush Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/us-president/george-w-bush
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E Television Networks
• Last Updated: January 19, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.

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George W. Bush

The 43rd President of the United States

The biography for President Bush and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.

George W. Bush, America’s 43rd President (2001-2009), was transformed into a wartime President in the aftermath of the airborne terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, facing the “greatest challenge of any President since Abraham Lincoln.”

The airborne terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the thwarted flight against the White House or Capitol on September 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed, transformed George W. Bush into a wartime president. The attacks put on hold many of Bush’s hopes and plans, and Bush’s father, George Bush, the 41st president, declared that his son “faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln.”

In response, Bush formed a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, sent American forces into Afghanistan to break up the Taliban, a movement under Osama bin Laden that trained financed and exported terrorist teams. The Taliban was successfully disrupted but Bin Laden was not captured and was still on the loose as Bush began his second term. Following the attacks, the president also recast the nation’s intelligence gathering and analysis services, and ordered reform of the military forces to meet the new enemy. At the same time he delivered major tax cuts which had been a campaign pledge. His most controversial act was the invasion of Iraq on the belief that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed a grave threat to the United States. Saddam was captured, but the disruption of Iraq and the killing of American servicemen and friendly Iraqis by insurgents became the challenge of Bush’s government as he began his second term. President Bush pledged during his 2005 State of the Union Address that the United States would help the Iraqi people establish a fully democratic government because the victory of freedom in Iraq would strengthen a new ally in the war on terror, bring hope to a troubled region, and lift a threat from the lives of future generations.

Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut while his father was attending Yale University after service in World War II. The family moved to Midland, Texas, where the senior Bush entered the oil exploration business. The son spent formative years there, attended Midland public schools, and formed friendships that stayed with him into the White House. Bush graduated from Yale, received a business degree from Harvard, and then returned to Midland where he too got into the oil business. In Midland he met and married Laura Welch, a teacher and librarian. They had twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, now out of college and pursuing careers.

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.

During the early part of the 2000 campaign for the White House, Bush enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls over his opponent Vice President Al Gore Jr. But the gap closed as the election approached and though Gore finally won the popular vote by 543,895 votes, victory or loss of the presidency hinged on Florida’s electoral votes. That struggle through recounts and lawsuits worked its way to the Supreme Court. In the end Bush won the electoral count 271 to 266. His new administration was focused on “compassionate conservatism,” which embraced excellence in education, tax relief and volunteerism among faith-based and community organizations.

Bush was challenged in his re-election bid in 2004 by Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry. The election was a good contest, but Bush’s contention that the invasion of Iraq had made the world more secure against terrorism won the national political debate. Bush was re-elected with 51 percent to 48 percent.

On the inaugural stand, George W. Bush set the theme for his second term: “At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet- and then there came a day of fire. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom – tested but not weary… we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.”

Learn more about George W. Bush’s spouse,  Laura Welch Bush .

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Course: US history   >   Unit 9

The presidency of george w. bush.

• September 11th
• The Great Recession
• The presidency of Barack Obama
• Causation from 1980-2020
• The United States after 2000
• Republican George W. Bush served two terms as president, from 2001-2009.
• The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack led President Bush to reframe American foreign policy as a War on Terror , and to fight two wars in the Middle East.
• A housing market crash led to a severe economic downturn in President Bush’s final years in office.

The presidential election of 2000

President bush’s foreign policy, president bush’s domestic policy agenda, what do you think, want to join the conversation.

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U.S. Presidents

George w. bush.

Learn about the life of the 43rd president of the United States

George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut , to a family that valued public service. His grandfather was a U.S. senator in Connecticut. His father, George H.W. Bush, was a U.S. representative for Texas and served several presidents before becoming vice president under Ronald Reagan in 1981 and then president in 1989.

Dubya, as the younger Bush was called, didn’t want to go into politics, though. As a child growing up in Midland, Texas, he played baseball and dreamed of becoming a star athlete. Still, he attended the same private school as the elder Bush before going to his father’s college, Yale University.

After graduating with a degree in history, Bush joined the National Guard in 1968, when the United States was fighting in the Vietnam War, a war between what was then the two separate countries of North and South Vietnam. He didn’t serve overseas, however, and remained in the United States during the war. After leaving the National Guard, Bush earned a business degree from Harvard Business School.

JOINING THE FAMILY BUSINESS

In 1975, Bush returned to Texas to work in the oil industry. He married Laura Welch in 1977, just three months after they met. Then, like his grandfather and father, he decided to run for political office. In 1978, he lost an election to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

After his election loss, Bush became owner and manager of the Texas Rangers baseball team for several years before deciding to try politics again. In 1994, he was elected governor of Texas. Four years later, he was reelected.

THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

In 2000, Bush decided to run for president of the United States, an office his father held from 1989 to 1993. He ran against the sitting vice president, Al Gore. Their contest ended with a hotly disputed debate over how to count votes in Florida , a state governed by Bush’s younger brother Jeb.

After the first tally, Bush led by a small margin in the Sunshine State. But then some people stepped forward and said they’d voted for the wrong person by accident because the ballots were hard to read. The presidency would now be decided by recounting some of the ballots in Florida.

For 36 days, the world waited to see who would become the next president. Finally the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, decided by a 5-4 vote that Bush was not receiving equal protection and due process (or fair treatment) under the Constitution , and they stopped the recounts. Bush had won Florida.

In many countries, the candidate with the most votes wins. But citizens of the United States participate in a more complex, two-step process. After individual citizens across the country vote, a group called the electoral college chooses the president. Based on population, each state has a certain number of delegates, or voters, in the electoral college who vote for the president according to how people in their state voted. The candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets all the state’s delegates.

Winning Florida gave Bush enough electoral college votes to win the presidency, even though Gore received some 500,000 more votes than Bush, winning the popular vote. Bush became the first president in more than a century to reach the White House without carrying the nation’s popular vote. Only John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison before him did the same. (Unlike these previous presidents, Bush was reelected four years later.)

Not since John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams (the second and sixth presidents) had a father and his son each become president of the United States.

A WARTIME PRESIDENT

The Bush presidency had many advisers who served during his father’s administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense for the elder Bush. The younger Bush’s administration planned to focus on domestic concerns like tax relief, but they were forced to focus on international affairs after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 .

On this date, hijackers—individuals who capture an aircraft, ship, or vehicle by force—flew planes into the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center; the Pentagon, which serves as headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense just outside Washington, D.C. ; and a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania . Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

A terrorist group based in Afghanistan (a country in the Middle East) called al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Bush’s popularity soared as the United States invaded that nation to capture those responsible for the attacks. But the United States had entered what would become a 20-year war on terror.

Bush also sent troops to Iraq in 2003 because of rumors that the country was hiding dangerous weapons. People supported the invasion at first, but public opinion split after no weapons were found. The administration’s wartime use of torture also led to a loss of support for the invasion.

Following the attacks on September 11, Bush created the Department of Homeland Security. The organization is responsible for border security, immigrations and customs, and disaster relief and prevention. But they also keep a close watch over suspected terrorist groups and send warnings if they think the country and its people are in danger. That way, the government can protect them.

A SECOND TERM

Despite losing some support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush was reelected as president in 2004 after running against Senator John Kerry, a Democrat. Many people voted for Bush because they believed citizens were safer with him in charge—after all, the country had not been attacked since 9/11.

During his second term, Bush appointed two justices to the Supreme Court after the death of the Court’s chief justice, William Rehnquist, and the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor. The new members—John Roberts and Samuel Alito—preserved the conservative majority of the Court.

During his second term, Bush refocused on domestic issues like education. His No Child Left Behind program created standards every school had to follow to make sure all kids received a good education.

THE GREAT RECESSION

But many citizens grew unhappy with the wars abroad and also didn’t like his administration’s slow response to help people after Hurricane Katrina hit gulf states like Louisiana in 2005. So during the 2006 midterm elections—held during the “middle” of a president’s term—many Democrats won their races. Now that political party had control of both the House and Senate for the first time in 14 years.

But determined to win the war on terror, Bush sent more U.S. troops to Iraq in 2007, a move that many people thought was wrong. And though it did make the region safer for a while, the fighting continued for years after Bush left office.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were expensive. Bush had also supported many tax cuts, which many conservatives liked but meant that the federal budget didn’t have as much money to pay for things, like the war on terror. Soon prices on goods increased, workers weren’t being paid enough to keep up with those prices, and new banking rules made it hard for some people to keep their homes.

The result was a worldwide economic crisis—the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s—near the end of Bush’s presidency. Lasting from late 2007 through most of 2009, this period is known as the Great Recession.

LASTING LEGACY

After leaving the White House in 2009, Bush retired to Texas. Today he and his wife, former First Lady Laura Bush, do outreach through the Bush Institute, part of a center in Dallas that includes his presidential library. The organization works to improve public education, promote democracy, expand global health, and decrease poverty. Bush also started painting as a hobby—his art has even been displayed in museums.

As a recent president, Bush’s legacy is still being determined. It’s likely he’ll be most remembered for preventing another major terrorist attack from occurring in the United States after 9/11, his education policies, getting the country involved in costly wars abroad, and his mishandling of the Great Recession.

• Bush is the only president who has twins: daughters Barbara and Jenna. • Bush loved to run so much he kept a treadmill on Air Force One to exercise during flights.

• Like three other presidents, Bush was a cheerleader in school; the others were Franklin Delano Roosevelt , Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.

From the Nat Geo Kids books  Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and  Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont; revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Main Content

George W. Bush

George W. Bush became the second presidential son (after John Quincy Adams) to assume office. Although initially focused on tax cuts and education reform, Bush's two terms became defined by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1946 where his father was attending Yale. When George H.W. Bush entered the oil business, the family moved to Midland, Texas. George followed in his father's footsteps, attending prep school at the Phillips Academy and graduating from Yale in 1968. He served in the Texas Air National Guard, went to Harvard Business School, and then returned to Midland, where he entered the oil industry. In 1977 he married Laura Welch, a teacher and librarian, who, in 1982, gave birth to twins Jenna and Barbara. In 1978, Bush was defeated in a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the 1980s, Bush worked to gain a foothold in a flagging Texas oil economy while serving as adviser during his father’s vice presidency and presidential campaigns. On his 40th birthday, he gave up drinking alcohol and grew more serious about his Christian faith. He became managing partner of the Texas Rangers while keeping his eye on political opportunities in his home state.

In 1994, Bush defeated incumbent Ann Richards to become governor of Texas. Extolling "compassionate conservatism," he won the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. The general election result hinged on the state of Florida. Due to the closeness of the vote, a recount was conducted and was contested in federal court. In a controversial decision, the Supreme Court ordered Florida to stop a subsequent recount of the ballots. Bush won the Electoral College with 271 votes, although lost the popular vote to his opponent, Vice President Al Gore.

On September 11, 2001, almost three thousand people were killed in an attack by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Also, a hijacked commercial airplane headed for the United States Capitol was overtaken by passengers and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Bush declared a worldwide “war on terrorism,” took the nation into battle against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and waged war against the Iraqi dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

Bush's campaign for reelection in 2004 was jeopardized by the Iraq War's growing unpopularity and its connection to the larger global war on terror. But after a close race, Bush defeated Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

Bush’s second term proved full of trial. He was criticized for being too slow to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Others complained that while pursuing terrorists, Bush had been too insensitive to civil liberties and American values. In 2007, the United States entered a deep recession, caused by a subprime mortgage crisis and slowed growth. After Congress failed to pass a bill to provide support to banks, the stock market crashed on September 29, 2008, with the Dow Jones falling 777 points in one day.

When Bush returned to Texas, he insisted that his presidency had been a “joyful” experience. He noted that he had kept the nation safe from terrorism after 2001 and maintained that “the true history of my administration will be written fifty years from now.”

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George W. Bush

George W. Bush (born 1946)

Republican George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore, but became president after a protracted period of ballot recounting, the legitimacy of which was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. During his first year in office, the apocalyptic terrorist attacks of 9/11 disrupted the nation’s sense of security and ushered in a new era of war on global terrorism. The Bush administration swiftly mounted military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During his second term, Bush faced domestic crises that significantly impacted his legacy. His administration’s slow response to the massive devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and to the cataclysmic financial crisis of 2008 caused widespread outrage and sparked interest in change.

Bush selected Connecticut portraitist Robert Anderson, with whom he attended Yale University, to create this painting for the National Portrait Gallery. The president requested an informal image, posing in shirtsleeves at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

Gift of American Fidelity Foundation, J. Thomas and Stefanie Atherton, William S. and Ann Atherton, Dr. Jon C. and Jane G. Axton, Dr. Lee and Sherry Beasley, Thomas A. Cellucci, A. James Clark, Richard H. Collins, Edward and Kaye Cook, Don and Alice Dahlgren, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Easton, Robert Edmund, Robert and Nancy Payne Ellis, Dr. Tom and Cheryl Hewett, Dr. Dodge and Lori Hill, Pete and Shelley Kourtis, Tom and Judy Love, David L. McCombs, Tom and Brenda McDaniel, Herman and LaDonna Meinders, The Norick Family, Kenneth and Gail Ochs, Robert and Sylvia Slater, Richard L. Thurston, Lew and Myra Ward, Dr. James and Susan Wendelken, Jim and Jill Williams

President of the United States - George W. Bush

Biography of president george w. bush.

George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control.

President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. The Bush family also includes two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, and a cat, Willie.

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Career and public service.

• Owner, oil and gas business
• Partner, Texas Rangers Baseball Team
• Governor of Texas
• President of the United States

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Bell Ringer: President George W Bush - Biography

President george w. bush - biography.

A brief life portrait of George W. Bush. 

Description

Bell ringer assignment.

• Where was George W. Bush born and raised?
• Describe his childhood and education experiences.
• Why was he given the nickname “Lip?”
• Describe his college career.
• How did George W. Bush spend his post college years?
• Explain how his life changed after he reached a “personal turning point.”
• What role did he play with the Texas Rangers?
• Explain his rise to become Governor of Texas.
• Describe the circumstances surrounding the presidential election of 2000 in which George. W. bush was elected President of the U.S.
• Explain some key events that emerged during his administration.
• Describe his post presidency years.

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• Department Of Homeland Security
• Electoral College
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• Hurricane Rita
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• September 11
• Skull And Bones Society
• Texas Air National Guard

Help inform the discussion

George W. Bush: Impact and Legacy

The legacy of George W. Bush remains, much like his 2000 election, a subject of profound controversy, and any truly objective evaluation will likely be years in the future. He entered office as one of only a handful Presidents to lose the nation’s popular vote. The election of 2000 and the Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore remain two of the most controversial political developments in the last half-century. Some thought that President Bush should begin his term by trying to find common ground and avoid controversy to take some of the edge off the nation’s polarized politics coming out of the 2000 election. Instead, as one of his first actions, President Bush issued an executive order creating the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which further alienated some who thought government money should not go to organizations affiliated with churches. Yet he did reach across the aisle on other issues including the No Child Left Behind Act, which was the most impactful change in education policy in a generation.

Within nine months of taking office, President Bush was afforded the chance to unite the nation after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. By most accounts, Bush did a masterful job of speaking for and to the American people. His crisis leadership, including insisting on returning to the White House the night of the attacks instead of holing up in a safe bunker elsewhere, gave the American people confidence that someone was in charge. He became the most popular President in the history of polling, reaching an astounding 90 percent approval rating in the wake of the attacks.

Following an authorization from Congress to eliminate those who perpetrated the attacks of 9/11, Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban leadership was driven into the mountains and across the boarders into neighboring countries, including Pakistan. Those early successes, however, turned into the longest war in American history, and the President never was able to achieve the greatest symbolic goal of the effort, the killing or capturing of the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden; U.S. special forces achieved that goal in 2011 under Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama.

Following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush also presided over a restructuring of the American national security apparatus and the passage of the Patriot Act, which gave the government vast new powers in the effort to combat future acts of terror. Both efforts, especially the Patriot Act, sparked strong divisions within the American people throughout the Bush presidency. In 2002 and into 2003, Bush used the fear of further terrorist attacks to argue for a preemptive war on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq under the rationale that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The initial attacks and invasion were extremely successful and popular but in the end no weapons of mass destruction were found anywhere in the country and a strong insurgency arose that resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Americans over the next eight years. The war grew increasingly unpopular, and the Democrats used it as a major wedge issue in the 2006 and 2008 elections, in which they first took over Congress and then the White House two years later.

On the domestic front, the Bush presidency scored early successes in gaining passage of large tax reductions and a major reform of the American educational system with the No Child Left Behind Act. The tax cuts, however, were not made permanent, as the President wished, and the bipartisan education reforms proved very controversial with their emphasis on testing and school report cards. The tax cuts were eventually made permanent during budget negotiations in the Obama administration but No Child Left Behind was eventually replaced with a new national education plan in 2015.

After his reelection in 2004, Bush sought major changes to Social Security, arguing a partial privatization plan could insure its solvency. He spent considerable political capital seeking such a change, but his efforts went nowhere in Congress. He also sought major immigration reforms that never materialized. As the tax cuts of 2001 reduced revenue to the government, while spending continued to increase partly due to the expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal government racked up large deficits. Ultimately, those deficits, exacerbated by the financial recession of 2008, helped create a politically impactful insurgency on the political right that went under the banner of the “Tea Party.” The last few months of the Bush presidency were marked by a major crash of the stock market, a controversial bail out of financial institutions and car companies, and a recession that would wipe out millions of jobs and impact the U.S. economy for many years.

The Bush presidency transformed American politics, its economy, and its place in the world, but not in ways that could have been predicted when the governor of Texas declared his candidacy for America’s highest office. As President, Bush became a lightning rod for controversy. His controversial election and policies, especially the war in Iraq, deeply divided the American people. Arguably his greatest moment as President was his initial, heartfelt response to the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks. Soon, however, his administration was overshadowed by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush’s place in U.S. history will be debated and reconsidered for many years to come.

Gary L. Gregg II

Professor University of Louisville

More Resources

George w. bush presidency page, george w. bush essays, life in brief, life before the presidency, campaigns and elections, domestic affairs, foreign affairs, life after the presidency, family life, the american franchise, impact and legacy (current essay).

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What Was George W. Bush’s Greatest Achievement?

By: John Seven

Updated: August 31, 2018 | Original: May 23, 2018

Much of the legacy of President George W. Bush is wrapped around the war on terror and military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what many consider his greatest achievement is a public health effort steeped in humanitarianism that won accolades across the political spectrum: Bush has probably done more than any other president to combat AIDS , particularly in Africa.

Bush was already interested in fighting African poverty, but his concern widened during the 2000 campaign when Condoleezza Rice presented him with the details of the AIDS crisis in Africa and stressed the need for more action. The United States had already devoted $500 million to the problem.

Bush led the UN efforts in creating a global fund to fight AIDS.

Following talks with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in early 2001, the United States became the first contributor to a global fund to fight HIV/AIDS, pledging $200 million. That amount more than doubled the next year, but Bush felt the problem required more spending and believed the UN was not speedy enough in its efforts.

In 2002 Bush unveiled the Mother and Child HIV Prevention Initiative targeting one million mothers in Africa and the Caribbean for treatment in an effort to save the lives of 150,000 babies.

Bush then pushed to devote $15 billion over the next five years. These funds would go to drugs and medical care for about 10 million patients, and also help millions of children orphaned by their parents’ deaths from AIDS. It was considered the largest health initiative ever to target one single disease.

Bush’s PEPFAR effort received strong bipartisan support.

That initiative became known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. Bush selected 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and two in the Caribbean to receive its help and announced PEPFAR in his 2003 State of the Union address.

The bill passed the House of Representatives the following May, 375 to 41. Forty of the no votes came from Bush’s fellow Republicans , but it was otherwise a popular bipartisan effort.

PEPFAR proved to be an impressive achievement: In 2007, the program was considered so successful that Bush asked for a funding increase, totaling $30 billion for the following five year period. In 2008, $39 billion was marked for PEPFAR.

PEPFAR was successful, but far from perfect.

PEPFAR did have some controversies, such as abstinence-only programs that were shown to make no impact. Funding for these has shrunk to a quarter of previous numbers.

PEPFAR also initially placed a condition requiring private groups to enact policies opposing sex work, but this was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013.

A Stanford University analysis of PEPFAR’s first three years calculated 1.1 million lives saved with a 28 percent reduction in HIV/AIDS. Other studies have revealed that adult mortality rates have improved in Africa as much as 20 percent thanks to PEPFAR programs.

Funding levels have since come under attack.

By the time of the election of Barack Obama , PEPFAR had treated 2 million AIDS patients and assisted to 10 million more, with further millions receiving help during pregnancies and being tested for HIV/AIDS.

Under Obama, funding for PEPFAR fell. More recent developments have seen the program included in attempts by President Donald Trump to weaken the broader swathe of global health initiatives.

Congress overruled the cuts in the 2018 budget, voting to continue funding PEPFAR at the same level, but the pressure for spending cuts and the reality of budget deficits continue to threaten the effectiveness of President Bush’s public health legacy.

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President George W. Bush

• Bush is the only president to have a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
• George's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. Senator.
• As governor of Texas he pushed through legislation that helped Texas to become the number one producer of wind powered energy in the United States.
• He likes Mexican food and Pralines and cream ice cream.
• He was nearly assassinated when a man threw a grenade at him in 2005. Fortunately, the grenade did not explode.
• George was an avid jogger while in office. He even ran a marathon once.
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• Listen to a recorded reading of this page: