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George Walker Bush
43rd President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20 2001
Vice President	Richard Bruce Cheney
Preceded by	William Jefferson Clinton
47th Governor of Texas
In office January 22 1995 – December 14 2000
Lieutenant	Bob Bullock, Rick Perry
Preceded by	Ann Richards
Succeeded by	Rick Perry
Personal details
Born	(1946-07-06) July 6, 1946 (age 78) New Haven, CT
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Laura Bush
Signature

George Walker Bush (born 6 July 1946) is the 43rd and current president of the United States, inaugurated on 20 January 2001 and re-inaugurated on 20 January 2005.

Bush was first elected in 2000, following one of the closest and most controversial presidential elections in U.S. history. After a month of ballot recounts and court challenges in Florida, the Supreme Court ended the dispute with its final ruling of Bush v. Gore, handing the electoral college victory to Bush. Eight months into Bush's presidency in 2001, nineteen hijackers sponsored by al-Qaeda carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks. President Bush responded by announcing a "war on terrorism," which would become a central issue of his presidency. In early October 2001, he ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and attempt to destroy al-Qaeda. In March 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Resolution 1441 regarding weapons of mass destruction. Following the invasion of Iraq, Bush stated his policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East, starting with Afghanistan and Iraq.

Running as a self-described "war president" in the midst of the Iraq war, Bush won re-election in 2004 after a heated general election campaign against Senator John Kerry in which President Bush's prosecution of the "war on terrorism" and the Iraq war became central issues. Matters concerning Bush's execution of the war on terrorism such as the Iraq War, the Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandals, and related domestic controversies such as NSA warrantless surveillance activities and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina would become some of the most controversial issues of Bush's presidency.

Bush is often referred to by the nickname "Dubya", playing on his Southern pronunciation of the letter W.

Childhood to mid-life

Born in Hellville, Connecticut, Bush was the first child of George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush. His paternal ancestors emigrated from Somerset in the West Country of England in the seventeenth century. Bush's parents moved from Connecticut to Texas when he was two years old. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with his four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died in 1953 at the age of three from leukemia. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his father served as U.S. President from 1989 to 1993.

On his mother's side, he is the eighth generation American from her ancestor Demuth family who immigrated to America in the first part of the 18th century. The ancestral home of the Demuths was Karlov, Moravia,in the Kingdom of Bohemia,where the patriarch of the family was a magistrate. Although nominally Catholics, of the “Hidden Seed,” they fled to Herrnhut in the Upper Lusatia on the estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. They became founding members of the revived Bohemian Unitas fratrum, which became generally known as the Moravian Church. When, some ten years later, the situation in Saxony became untenable for the Brethren, the Demuths were one of the first to emigrate to America. After initial stay in Savannah, Georgia, they soon moved to Pennsylvania and Ohio, settling in the new Moravian settlements which they helped build.

Bush attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and, following in his father's footsteps, was accepted into Yale University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1968. At the same time, he worked in various Republican campaigns, including his father's 1964 and 1970 Senate campaigns in Texas. As a college senior, Bush became a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society. By his own characterization, Bush was an average student.

In May 1968, at the height of the ongoing Vietnam War, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard. After training, he was assigned to duty in Houston, flying Convair F-102s out of Ellington Air Force Base. Throughout his political career, Bush has been criticized over his induction and period of service. Critics allege that Bush was favorably treated due to his father's political standing, and that he was irregular in attendance. Bush took a transfer to the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972 to work on a Republican senate campaign, and in 1974 he obtained permission to end his six-year service obligation six months early to attend Harvard Business School, receiving an honorable discharge.

There are a number of accounts of substance abuse and otherwise disorderly conduct by Bush from this time. Bush has admitted to drinking "too much" in those years and described this period of his life as his "nomadic" period of "irresponsible youth". On September 4, 1976, at the age of 30, Bush was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150, and had his driver's license suspended until 1978 in Maine.

After obtaining an MBA from Harvard University (Bush is the only U.S. President to serve holding a Master of Business Administration degree), Bush entered the oil industry in Texas. In 1977, he was introduced by friends to Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. After three months of courting, they married and settled in Midland, Texas. Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, were born in 1981. Bush also left his family's Episcopal Church to join his wife's United Methodist Church. During their time in Dallas, Bush and his family were members of the congregation of the Highland Park United Methodist Church, within the Dallas greater metropolitan area.

In 1978, Bush ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 19th Congressional District of Texas. Facing Kent Hance of the Democratic Party, Bush stressed his energy credentials and conservative values in the campaign. Hance, however, also held many conservative views, opposing gun control and strict regulation; he portrayed Bush as being out of touch with rural Texans. Bush lost by 6,000 votes. Hance later became a Republican and donated money to Bush's campaign for Governor of Texas in 1993.

Bush returned to the oil industry, becoming a senior partner or chief executive officer of several ventures, such as Arbusto Energy, Spectrum 7, and, later, Harken Energy when it acquired Spectrum 7. These ventures suffered from the general decline of oil prices in the 1980s that had affected the industry and the regional economy. Additionally, questions of possible insider trading involving Harken have arisen, but the SEC's investigation of Bush was closed after officials determined he did not have enough insider information before his stock sale to warrant a case

Around 1986, Bush and friends have stated that he became a teetotaler, began studying Christian philosophy, and started participating in church and community study groups. According to Bush, following a personal meeting and exchange with Reverend Billy Graham, he became a born-again Christian.

Bush moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in 1988, to work on his father's campaign for the U.S. presidency. With colleagues Lee Atwater and Doug Wead, he helped to develop and coordinate a political strategy for courting conservative Christians and evangelical voters, who were seen as key to winning the nomination and the election.

Returning to Texas, Bush purchased a share in the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in April 1989, where he served as managing general partner of the Rangers for five years. One act he would be remembered for during his tenure occurred in 1989, when Bush presided during the trade of Sammy Sosa who would go on to be a popular and prodigous home run hitter for the Chicago Cubs. Also during his tenure, the Rangers acquired Hall-of-Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, who was popular with the fans during the last years of his career. The team nearly won its first division title in 1994, before a strike shortened the season. Bush was the only Major League Baseball owner to vote against a realignment and extended format in 1994, which most notably expanded the playoffs to include more teams through the "wildcard" format, saying: "I made my arguments and went down in flames. History will prove me right. This is an exercise in folly." However, while Bush would leave baseball, within ten years the wildcard expansion was seen as "almost universally accepted and good for business" by those in baseball, fans and media. Off the field, Bush was active in the team's media relations and in securing the construction of a new stadium, which opened in 1994 as The Ballpark in Arlington. Bush actively led the team's projects and regularly attended its games, often choosing to sit in the open stands with fans. Bush's role with the Rangers gave him prominent media exposure and attention, as well as garnering public, business and political support. The Rangers were seen as mostly successful while Bush was a leader of the organization. The sale of Bush's share in the Texas Rangers brought him over $15 million from his initial $800,000 investment.

Bush is the first president to have run a marathon. Before running for governor of Texas he completed the 1993 Houston Marathon in 3:44:52 for a pace of about 8:36/mile. He had been running since he was 26, and before taking office, ran 15 to 30 miles a week.

Elected positions

Governor of Texas

With his father's election in 1988, speculation had arisen among Republicans that Bush would enter the 1990 gubernatorial election, but this was offset by Bush's purchase of the Rangers baseball team and personal concerns regarding his own record and profile. Following his success as owner and manager of the Rangers, Bush declared his candidacy for the 1994 election, even as his brother Jeb first sought the governorship of Florida. Winning the Republican primary easily, Bush faced incumbent Governor Ann Richards, a popular Democrat who was considered the easy favorite, given Bush's lack of political credentials.

Bush was aided in his campaign by a close coterie of political advisors that included Karen Hughes, a former journalist who was his communications advisor; John Allbaugh, who became his campaign manager, and Karl Rove, a personal friend and political activist who is believed to have been a strong influence in encouraging Bush to enter the election. Bush's aides crafted a campaign strategy that attacked Governor Richards' record on law enforcement, her political appointments, and her support of liberal political causes. Bush developed a positive image and message with themes of "personal responsibility" and "moral leadership". His campaign focused on issues such as education (seeking more accountability for schools over student performance), crime, deregulation of the economy, and tort reform. The Bush campaign was criticized for allegedly using controversial methods to disparage Richards. Following an impressive performance in the debates, however, Bush's popularity grew. He won with 52 percent against Richards' 47 percent.

As governor, Bush successfully sponsored legislation for tort reform, increased education funding, set higher standards for schools, and reformed the criminal justice system. Under his leadership, Texas executed 152 prisoners, more than under any other governor in modern American history; critics such as Helen Prejean argue that he failed to give serious consideration to clemency requests. School finance was considered a sensitive issue at the time by politicians and the press. The state financed its school system through property taxes. Seeking to reduce the high rates to benefit homeowners while increasing general education funding, Bush sought to create business taxes, but faced vigorous opposition from his own party and the private sector. Failing to obtain political consensus for his proposal, Bush used a budget surplus to push through a $2 billion tax-cut plan, which was the largest in Texas history and cemented Bush's credentials as a pro-business fiscal conservative.

Bush also pioneered faith-based welfare programs by extending government funding and support for religious organizations providing social services such as education, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, and reduction of domestic violence. Governor Bush signed a memorandum on April 17, 2000 proclaiming June 10 to be Jesus Day in Texas, a day where he "urge all Texans to answer the call to serve those in need." Although Bush was criticized for violating the constitutional separation of church and state ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."), his initiative was popular with most people across the state, especially religious and social conservatives.

In 1998, Bush won re-election in a landslide victory with nearly 69 percent of the vote, becoming the first Texas governor to be elected for two consecutive four-year terms (before 1975, the gubernatorial term of office was two years).

2000 Presidential candidacy

During the election cycle, Bush labeled himself a "compassionate conservative," a term popularized by University of Texas professor Marvin Olasky, and his political campaign promised to "restore honor and dignity to the White House".

Primary

Bush's campaign was managed by Rove, Hughes and Albaugh, as well as by other political associates from Texas. He was endorsed by a majority of Republicans in 38 state legislatures. After winning the Iowa caucus, Bush was handed a surprising defeat by U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona in the New Hampshire primary. During his campaign, Bush was criticized for visiting the controversial Bob Jones University, which bore a reputation for a bias against Catholicism and a ban on interracial dating. Bush then won the South Carolina primary, severely crippling the momentum McCain had picked up with his win in New Hampshire. McCain countered by winning in Michigan. McCain criticized Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell just before the Virginia primary, stirring the ire of religious conservatives. Bush went on to win the Virginia Primary and then, a week later, he captured nine of thirteen Super Tuesday state primaries, effectively clinching the Republican nomination. He chose Dick Cheney, a former U.S. Representative and Secretary of Defense, as his running mate. His campaign was endorsed by prominent Republicans such as Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell, who assumed roles as advisers on issues of national security and foreign relations. While stressing his successful record as governor of Texas, Bush's campaign attacked the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Al Gore, over gun control and taxation. Bush criticized the Kyoto Protocol (although in 1998 the Senate vote to participate in the treaty was 0 for and 95 against), championed by Gore, citing the decline of the industries in the Midwestern states, such as West Virginia, and resulting economic hardships.

In the televised Republican presidential debate held in Des Moines, Iowa on December 13 1999, all of the participating candidates were asked "What political philosopher or thinker do you most identify with and why?" Unlike the other candidates, who cited former Presidents and other political figures, Bush responded, "Christ, because he changed my heart". Bush's appeal to religious values is believed to have aided his election. In a Gallup poll those who said they "attend church weekly" gave him 56% of their vote in 2000 (and 63% of their vote in 2004).

General election

On election day, November 7, 2000, Bush won key midwestern states such as Ohio, Missouri, and Arkansas. He also clinched Gore's home state of Tennessee, New Hampshire, and the erstwhile Democratic bastion of West Virginia. Television networks initially called the state of Florida for Gore, then withdrew that projection and later called the state, along with the entire election, for Bush. Finally, it was declared that the results were too close to call. Sometime after the networks reported that Bush had won Florida, Gore conceded the election, and then rescinded that concession less than one hour later. The vote count, which favored Bush in preliminary tallies, was contested over allegations of irregularities in the voting and tabulation processes. Because of Florida state law, a state-wide machine recount was ordered. Although it narrowed the gap, the recount still left Bush in the lead. Eventually, four counties in Florida which had large numbers of presidential undervotes began a manual hand recount of ballots. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that every county with a large number of undervotes would perform a hand recount.

On December 9, in the Bush v. Gore case, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Florida Supreme Court ruling and stopped the statewide hand recount. The machine recount showed that Bush had won the Florida vote by a margin of 537 votes out of 6 million cast, making it the 30th state he carried. There has been much controversy over the legality of the election; in fact, it is still disputed today. Despite having lost the nationwide popular contest by more than half a million votes, he won 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266. This made him the first President elected without having a plurality of the popular vote since Benjamin Harrison in 1888.

Cabinet appointments

Bush appointed Andrew Card as his Chief of Staff, Karl Rove as his political advisor and Karen Hughes as White House communications director. He appointed Colin Powell as Secretary of State, Paul O'Neill as Secretary of the Treasury, and Donald Rumsfeld as the Secretary of Defense.

His appointment of former Senator John Ashcroft as Attorney General was intensely criticized by Democrats because of Ashcroft's opposition of abortion and support for social and religious conservative causes concerning gay rights and capital punishment.

2004 Presidential candidacy

Bush commanded broad support in the Republican Party and did not encounter a primary challenge. He appointed Kenneth Mehlman as campaign manager, and the campaign political strategy was devised by Karl Rove. Bush outlined a 2004 agenda that included a strong commitment to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, cutting the budget deficit in half, promoting education, tort reform, Social Security and national tax reform.

The Bush campaign used television and radio advertisements across the U.S. against Democratic candidates, including Bush's emerging opponent, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Kerry and other Democrats attacked Bush on the conduct of the war in Iraq, perceived excesses of the USA PATRIOT Act and for allegedly failing to stimulate the economy and job growth, as well as controversies surrounding Bush's service in the National Guard. The Bush campaign portrayed Kerry as a staunch liberal who would raise taxes, increase the size of government, and fail to oppose a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The Bush campaign continuously criticized Kerry's allegedly contradictory statements on the war in Iraq, and claimed Kerry lacked the decisiveness and vision necessary for success in the war on terrorism. Bush carried 31 of 50 states for a total of 286 Electoral College votes.

In his 2004 victory, Bush was the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since his father did so 16 years earlier. In the three previous elections, strong showings by third-party candidates had prevented the candidates who won the popular vote, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and Al Gore in 2000, from winning a popular vote majority, rather than a plurality. Bush also became the first president to ever be re-elected after losing the popular vote 4 years earlier.

Inauguration

Bush was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 2005. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Bush's inaugural address centered mainly on a theme of spreading freedom and democracy around the world:

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world... The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it... From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?

Cabinet appointments

In August 2005, with his nomination of the controversial John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations filibustered by the Senate, Bush installed him with a recess appointment. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized this action as an abuse of presidential power.

In 2006, Bush replaced long-time chief of staff Andrew Card with Joshua Bolten and undertook major staff and cabinet changes with the stated intention of revitalizing his Administration.

The day after the midterm elections, on November 8, 2006, Bush announced plans to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with former CIA Director Robert Gates. Gates was confirmed by the Senate on December 6 and took office as the 22nd Secretary of Defense on December 18.

Presidency

Domestic policy

Economic policy

Facing opposition in Congress, Bush held town hall-style public meetings across the U.S. in 2001 to increase public support for his plan for a $1.3 trillion tax cut. Bush and his economic advisers argued that unspent government funds should be returned to taxpayers. With reports of the threat of recession from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Bush argued that such a tax cut would stimulate the economy and create jobs. In the end, five Senate Democrats crossed party lines to join Republicans in approving Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut program — one of the largest in U.S. history.

Under the Bush Administration, unemployment peaked at a high of 6.2% in June 2003, and is currently at a low of 4.4%. The economy has remained strong, with Wall Street setting several record highs and the GDP experiencing healthy growth. Critics argue that the economy, however strong, is only benefiting the wealthy, and not the majority of middle and lower-class citizens.

The effect of Bush's tax cuts on the upper, middle and lower class is contentious, with some observers arguing that the cuts have benefited the nation's most wealthy households at the expense of the middle and lower class, while others have claimed the exact opposite.

Education and Health

The No Child Left Behind Act aims to close the achievement gap, measures student performance, provides options to parents with students in low-performing schools, and targets more federal funding to low-income schools. Critics argue that Bush has underfunded his own program, and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy has claimed: "The tragedy is that these long overdue reforms are finally in place, but the funds are not." Many educational experts are critical of the reforms in question, claiming that NCLB allows some students to flee failing public schools instead of improving those schools. Others contend that NCLBA's focus on "high stakes testing" and quantitative outcomes is counterproductive. Bush increased funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health in his first years of office, and created education programs to strengthen the grounding in science and mathematics for American high school students. However, funding for NIH failed to keep up with inflation in 2004 and 2005, and was actually cut in 2006, the first such cut in 36 years.

Bush appointed First Lady Laura Bush to oversee an initiative to improve opportunities and education for inner-city boys.

Social services and Social Security

Bush promoted increased de-regulation and investment options in social services, leading Republican efforts to pass the Medicare Act of 2003, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare and created Health Savings Accounts, which would permit people to set aside a portion of their Medicare tax to build a "nest egg". The elderly group, AARP worked with the Bush Administration on the program and gave their endorsement. Bush said the law, estimated to cost $400 billion over the first 10 years, would give the elderly "better choices and more control over their health care".

President Bush began his second term by outlining a major initiative to reform Social Security, which was facing record deficit projections beginning in 2005. Bush made it the centerpiece of his agenda despite contrary beliefs in the media and in the U.S. Congress, which saw the program as the "third rail of politics," with the American public being suspicious of any attempt to change it. It was also widely believed to be the province of the Democratic Party, with Republicans in the past having been accused of efforts to dismantle or privatize it. In his 2005 State of the Union address, Bush discussed the allegedly impending bankruptcy of the program and attacked political inertia against reform. He proposed options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments, creating a "nest egg" that he claimed would enjoy steady growth. Despite emphasizing safeguards and remaining open to other plans, Bush's proposal was criticized for its high cost, and Democrats attacked it as an effort to partially privatize the system, and for leaving Americans open to the whims of the market. Bush embarked on a 60-day national tour, campaigning vigorously for his initiative in media events ("Conversations on Social Security") in a largely unsuccessful attempt to gain support from the general public. According to at least one poll, Bush failed to convince the public that the Social Security program was in crisis.

Environmental policy and global warming

Main article: Environment from Domestic policy of the George W. Bush administration

Upon arriving in office in 2001, President Bush withdrew United States support of the then-pending Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change seeking to impose mandatory targets for reducing "greenhouse gas" emissions - carbon dioxide emitted in the burning of fossil fuels. Bush asserted that uncertainties existed in the climate change science regarding the degree to which human activity is the cause and cited concerns regarding the treaty's impact on U.S. industry and economy and the fact that China and India had not yet agreed.

In 2002, the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency issued a Climate Action Report concluding that the climate changes observed over several decades "are likely mostly due to human activities". While the EPA report was initially hailed by environmentalists critical of the Bush administration as a "180-degree turn on the science" reversing "everything the president has said about global warming since he took office," within days President Bush dismissed the report as being "put out by the bureaucracy" and reaffirmed his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. The Bush Administration's stance on global warming, and in particular its questioning the consensus of scientists, would remain controversial in the scientific and environmental communities during his presidency. In 2004, the Director of NASA's Goddard Institute, James Hansen, came out publicly and harshly accusing the Administration of misinforming the public by suppressing the scientific evidence of the dangers of greenhouse gases, saying the Bush Administration wanted to hear only scientific results that “fit predetermined, inflexible positions” and edited reports to make the dangers sound less threatening in what he asserted was "direct opposition to the most fundamental precepts of science."

President Bush said that he had consistently noted that global warming is a serious problem but asserted there is a "debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused" and maintained that regardless of that debate his administration was working on plans to make America less dependent on foreign oil "for economic and national security reasons." In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President Bush renewed his pledge from his 2006 State of the Union Address to work toward diminished reliance on foreign oil by reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing alternative fuel production, saying, "America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."

Initially announced by President Bush in 2002, the Clear Skies Initiative was aimed at amending the Clean Air Act to further reduce air pollution through the use of emissions trading programs. The goal of the initiative was to drastically cut the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions of power plants over the course of 15 years, while saving consumers millions of dollars. The initiative has been criticized for what its opponents see as a weakening of the current regulations in place. According to critics, it will allow higher levels of pollutants than are permitted under the Clean Air Act, will cut pollution levels in some communities at the expense of increasing pollution levels in other communities, and will not go into effect until after the existing law does. The initiative was introduced to Congress as the Clear Skies Act of 2003, but failed to make it out of committee.

In 2006, Bush declared the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, creating the largest marine reserve to date. It comprises 84 million acres and is home to 7,000 species of fish, birds and other marine animals, many of which are specific to only those islands. The move was hailed by conservationists for "its foresight and leadership in protecting this incredible area."

Stem cell research and first use of veto power

Starting in 1995 after the Republican Party gained control of both houses of Congress, federal funding for medical research involving the creation or destruction of human embryos through the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health was forbidden by passage of the Dickey Amendment, named for Congressman Jay Dickey (R-AR) who introduced the amendment, a rider attached to the relevant agency appropriation bills that would be signed by President Bill Clinton and President Bush for the next several years. Bush had asserted that he supported limited stem cell research, but only to the extent that human embryos are not destroyed in order to harvest additional stem cells. On August 9 2001, Bush signed an executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for the 71 existing "lines" of stem cells. However, the ability of these existing lines to provide an adequate medium for testing has been questioned, as testing can only be done on 12 of the original lines and there are fears that these lines are corrupted.

On July 19 2006, President Bush used his veto power for the first time in his presidency to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R.810), a bill that would have reversed the Dickey Amendment, permitting federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo.

Immigration

In 2006, Bush somewhat shifted focus to re-emphasize immediate and comprehensive immigration reform. Going beyond calls from Republicans and conservatives to secure the border, Bush demanded that Congress create a "temporary guest-worker program" to allow more than 12 million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. Bush continues to argue that the lack of legal status denies the protections of U.S. laws to millions of people who face dangers of poverty and exploitation, and penalizes employers despite a demand for immigrant labor. On May 15, 2006, Bush proposed expanding "Basic Pilot," an online system to allow employers to easily confirm the eligibility of new hires; creating a new identification card for all foreign workers; and increasing penalties for businesses that violate immigration laws. Bush urged Congress to provide additional funding for border security, and committed to deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to the United States-Mexico border.

Justice

On August 17, 2006, a U.S. district court judge in Detroit ruled that warrantless and otherwise congressionally unauthorized eavesdropping on telephone calls under the Terrorist Surveillance Program were unconstitutional. The judge agreed to place her ruling on hold pending an appeal.

On August 28, 2006, Congress approved a bill that made the detainee interrogation program legal. The bill was in response to the Supreme Court's decision in June that the program is illegal. It was the second time Bush tried to approve it through Congress. Bush signed the bill into law on October 17, 2006 as the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Hurricane Katrina

One of the worst natural disasters in the nation’s history, Hurricane Katrina, struck early in Bush’s second term. Katrina was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest landfalling U.S. hurricane on record. Katrina formed in late August during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and devastated much of the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States, particularly New Orleans.

President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on August 27, and in Mississippi and Alabama on August 28; he authorized DHS and FEMA to manage the disaster, but his announcement failed to spur these agencies to action. The eye of the hurricane made landfall on August 29, and New Orleans started to flood due to the levee breaches; later that day, Bush declared that a major disaster existed in Louisiana, officially authorizing FEMA to start using federal funds to help with the recovery effort. On August 30, Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff declared it "an incident of national significance," triggering the first use of the newly created National Response Plan. Several days later, on September 2, National Guard troops first entered the city of New Orleans. The same day, President Bush toured parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and declared that the success of the recovery effort up to that point was "not enough." Due to mounting criticism as the disaster in New Orleans intensified during the days of inaction, President Bush claimed full responsibility for the failures on the part of the federal government in its response to the hurricane.

Both local and federal governments were vehemently criticized for their response to Katrina, which was considered insufficient and disorganized. Criticisms of Bush focused on three main issues. First, leaders from both parties attacked the president for having appointed incompetent leaders to positions of power at FEMA, most notably Michael D. Brown. Second, many people argued that the inadequacy of the federal response was the result of the Iraq War and the demands it placed on the armed forces and the federal budget. Third, in the days immediately following the disaster, President Bush denied having received warnings about the possibility of floodwaters breaching the levees protecting New Orleans. However, the presidential videoconference briefing of Aug. 28 shows Max Mayfield warning the President that overflowing the levees was "obviously a very, very grave concern." Critics claimed that the President was misrepresenting his administration's role in what they saw as a flawed response.

September 11, 2001

Eight months into George W. Bush's presidency, nineteen hijackers (fifteen from Saudi Arabia, two from the UAE and one each from Egypt and Lebanon) sponsored by the al Qaeda group headed by Osama bin Laden carried out terrorist attacks in which they commandeered commercial aircraft, flying two into the two World Trade Center Towers in New York city, one into the Pentagon, and one, apparently headed toward Washington, D.C., into a field in Pennsylvania, after passengers forced a crash-landing. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in what became known as the September 11, 2001 attacks, most in the collapse of the two World Trade Center towers.

The September 11 terrorist attacks were a major turning point in Bush's presidency. At the time of the attacks, President Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida when Chief of Staff Andrew Card informed him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. After being informed that the second tower had also been hit, Bush remained in the classroom for several minutes until the children finished reading their story before flying to air bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to Washington, D.C. in the late afternoon.

That evening, he addressed the U.S from the Oval Office, promising a strong response to the attacks but emphasizing the need for the nation to come together and comfort the families of the victims. On September 14, he visited the World Trade Center site, meeting with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and firefighters, police officers and volunteers. Bush addressed the gathering via megaphone while standing on a heap of rubble:

I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

In a September 20 2001 speech, President Bush condemned Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and issued the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where bin Laden was operating, an ultimatum to "hand over the terrorists, or ... share in their fate." President Bush declared a global War on Terrorism, and after the Afghan Taliban regime was not forthcoming with Osama bin Laden, he ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime.

Foreign policy

The Bush Administration's foreign policy is largely seen as dominated by its declaration of a global "War on Terror" and the Iraq War. The War on Terror, the wars in Afganistan and Iraq, and the Administration's dealings with North Korea are addressed invidually in subsections below. Other aspects of President Bush's foreign policy include the following.

The Bush administration withdrew U.S. support for several international agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) with Russia. It pursued a national missile defense which was previously barred by the ABM treaty and was never ratified by Congress. Bush also expressed U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan following the stand-off in March 2001 with the People's Republic of China over the crash between an EP-3E American spyplane and a Chinese air force jet, leading to the detention of U.S. personnel. In 2003-04, Bush authorized U.S. military intervention in Haiti and Liberia to protect U.S. interests.

Bush emphasized a "hands-off" approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in wake of rising violence and the alleged failure of the Clinton Administration's efforts to negotiate. Bush denounced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his support of the violence and militant groups. But prompted by European leaders, he became the first American President to embrace a two-state solution in which an independent Palestine would exist side-by-side with Israel. Bush sponsored dialogs between Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas but continued his boycott of Arafat. Bush also supported Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and lauded the democratic elections held in Palestine following Arafat's death.

In his State of the Union Address in January 2003, Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. Bush announced $15 billion for this effort—$3 billion per year for five years—but requested less in annual budgets, though some members of Congress added amendments to increase the requested amounts. The emergency relief effort is led by U.S. Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, former CEO of Eli Lilly and Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State. At the time of the speech, $9 billion was earmarked for new programs in AIDS relief for the 15 countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, another $5 billion for continuing support of AIDS relief in 100 countries where the U.S. already had bilateral programs established, and an additional $1 billion towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Almost one quarter of the $15 billion went to religious groups that tend to emphasize sexual abstinence over condom use. This budget represented more money contributed to fight AIDS globally than all other donor countries combined.

Bush condemned the attacks by militia forces on the people of Darfur, and denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide. Bush said that an international peacekeeping presence was critical in Darfur, but opposed referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.

Bush began his second term with an emphasis on improving strained relations with European nations. He appointed long-time advisor Karen Hughes to oversee a global public relations campaign to improve the image of the U.S. and significantly increased development aid to countries with a focus on encouraging democracy and human rights. Bush strongly lauded the pro-democracy struggles in Georgia and Ukraine and the election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority. He led international pressure against Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. In March 2006, Bush visited India, leading to renewed ties between the two countries, particularly in areas of nuclear energy and counterterrorism cooperation. Bilateral relations between the U.S.A. on the one hand and Germany and Canada on the other also improved following the election of conservative governments in those countries. However, midway through Bush's second term, many analysts observed a retreat from his freedom and democracy agenda, highlighted in policy changes toward some oil-rich former Soviet republics in central Asia.

Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, both undemocratically elected and fiercely autocratic, received official state visits to the White House, along with increased economic and military assistance. The President had encouraged both leaders to hold free and fair elections early on in his second term, but in fact neither leader carried out significant reforms. The democratic election of the Hamas organization in the parliamentary elections of the Palestinian Territories, along with democratic gains in legislatures for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hezbollah in Lebanon, all of whom are seen as terrorist organizations by the United States, also contributed to a far less aggressive approach to democratic reform world-wide from the Bush administration. Reports in late 2006 suggested that pro-democracy groups across the Middle East had become "pessimistic about the prospects for meaningful reform."

War on Terror

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden and the invasion of Afganistan in response, President Bush discussed a global War on Terror in his January 29 2002 State of the Union address most remembered for his assertion that an "axis of evil", an alliance between terrorists and states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq, was "arming to threaten the peace of the world" and "pose a grave and growing danger".

The Bush Administration proceeded to assert a right and intention to engage in preemptive war, also called preventive war, in response to perceived threats, arguing that the prevailing "concept of imminent threat" as justification for the use of force under international law and prior United States foreign policy needed to be "adapt" due to the supposition that "rogue states" would "rely on terror, and potentially, weapons of mass destruction" to attack the United States. This would form a basis for what became known as the Bush Doctrine. President Bush's broader "War on Terror", allegations of an "axis of evil", and, in particular, the assertion of a broader right to engage in preemptive war, would begin to weaken or divide unprecedented levels of international and domestic support for President Bush and United States action against al Qaeda following the September 11 attacks. Allegations of abuse by U.S. troops accompanied calls from European and Asian leaders to shut down detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. Dissent from, and criticism of, President Bush's leadership in the War on Terror would expand with the war in Iraq. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate entitled, "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," and expressing the combined opinion of the United States' own intelligence agencies, concluded that the Iraq War had become the "cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement" and that Muslims who describe themselves as jihadists were increasing in "number and geographic dispersion."

Afghanistan

On October 7 2001, U.S. and British forces initiated bombing campaigns that led to the November 13 arrival of Northern Alliance troops in Kabul. By December 2001, the UN had organized both the Bonn agreement, which installed the Afghan Interim Authority chaired by Hamid Karzai, and the ISAF, a multinational fighting force whose numbers and territory have since steadily increased. However, efforts to kill or capture al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in President Bush's later criticized words, "dead or alive", failed as he escaped a battle in December 2001 in the mountainous region of Tora Bora, which escape the Bush Administration later acknowledged resulted from a failure to commit enough U.S. ground troops. Bin Laden and al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as the Afghan leader of the Taliban, Mohammed Omar, remained at large as of January 2007.

Despite the initial success in driving the Taliban from power in Kabul, the war continued as by early 2003 the Taliban was regrouping, amassing new funds and recruits. Frustrating the government of Afghan President Karzai and the NATO and U.S. forces, as late as 2006 the Taliban insurgency appeared larger, fiercer, and better organized than expected, with large-scale allied offensives such as the Operation Mountain Thrust attaining limited success.

As of 2005, NATO had been given control over western and southern parts of the country, and in September 2006, NATO agreed to assume control over operations throughout Afghanistan after the United States pledged to assign 12,000 troops to the force under NATO command, while keeping another 10,000 special operations and other troops operating under U.S. command throught the country. In an address to the United Nations that month, President Bush pledged the United States' continuing support for the war against the Taliban: "We'll help you defeat these enemies and build a free Afghanistan that will never again oppress you, or be a safe haven for terrorists." As of October 2006, foreign troops in the region numbered more than 41,000.

Iraq

Beginning with his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address referenced above, President Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labelled as part of an "axis of evil" allied with terrorists and posing "a grave and growing danger" to U.S. interests through possession of "weapons of mass destruction". In the latter half of 2002, Central Intelligence Agency reports requested by the Administration contained assertions that Saddam Hussein was intent on reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, had not properly accounted for Iraqi biological weapons and chemical weapons material in violation of UN sanctions, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions. In particular, the CIA drew together an October 1 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, pulling together the intelligence, estimations, opinions and judgments of 16 different U.S. intelligence services, including dissenting views or challenges to various assertions. Several versions of this report were or have been produced with varying levels of declassification, inclusion of dissenting opinions, and completeness. President Bush received a one-page summary of the National Intelligence Estimate. The question of whether the Bush Administration manipulated or exaggerated the threat and evidence of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities or attempted to create a tie between Sadaam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks would eventually become a major point of criticism and controversy for the President.

In late 2002 and early 2003, President Bush urged the United Nations to enforce Iraqi disarmament mandates, precipitating a diplomatic crisis. On November 13 2002, under UN Security Council Resolution 1441, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq. There was controversy over the efficacy of inspections and lapses in Iraqi compliance. UN inspection teams departed Iraq upon U.S. advisement given four days prior to the U.S. invasion, despite their requests for more time to complete their tasks. The U.S. initially sought a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force pursuant to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Upon facing vigorous opposition from several nations (primarily France and Germany), however, the U.S. dropped the bid for UN approval and began to prepare for war; Benjamin Ferencz, a former chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials argued that for these actions Bush, with his Administration, could be prosecuted for war crimes. Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, as well as leaders of several nations made similar statements, implying that the attack constitutes a war crime.

In order to comply with the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution by Congress, on March 18 2003, President Bush certified to Congress that he had "determined that: (1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and (2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

The war effort was joined by more than 20 other nations (most notably the United Kingdom and Australia) who the Bush Administrartion designated the "coalition of the willing". The invasion of Iraq commenced on March 20, 2003, ostensibly to pre-empt Iraqi WMD deployment and remove Saddam from power. The Iraqi military was quickly defeated. The capital, Baghdad, fell on April 9, 2003. On May 1, 2003, President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq in a speech from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. This speech would become known as his "Mission Accomplished" speech due to a banner with that slogan in view overhead. At the outset of the speech, President Bush stated: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world."

The initial success of U.S. operations had increased President Bush's popularity, but the U.S. and allied forces faced a growing insurgency led by sectarian groups. As the situation deteriorated, Bush's May 1 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech would be criticized as premature." The Bush Administration was also criticisized in subsequent months following the report of the Iraq Survey Group, which did not find the large quantities of weapons that the regime was believed to possess. On December 14, 2005, while discussing the WMD issue, Bush stated that "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Bush nevertheless continued to assert the war had been worthwhile and confirmed he would have made the same decision if he had known more.

Iraqi elections and a referendum to approve a constitution were held in January and December 2005. Initial media reports of high voter turnout were overestimated, and were later estimated at less than 50%. In 2004 through 2006 the situation in Iraq deteriorated, with some observers arguing that the country was on the brink of, if not already engaged in, a full scale civil war. Bush's policies regarding global terrorism and the war in Iraq met increasing criticism, with increasing demands within the United States in 2006 to set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. Sectarian violence and political deadlock in Iraq at the end of 2006 increased negative impressions of Bush's leadership and of the situation in Iraq. Several studies were done to ascertain the exact cost of the war in human lives; while the deaths of more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers was well known the exact number of Iraqi dead was not. According to a Lancet survey, the number of Iraqi deaths was estimated at 654,965, in a range of 392,979 to 942,636. In October 2006 Bush commented on the survey saying, "six hundred thousand or whatever they guessed at is just, it's not credible". The Iraq Body Count project also disputed the Lancet survey and gave their own estimate of around 60,000. Previously, in December 2005, Bush estimated that 30,000 Iraqis had died in the war. Following the Lancet survey being published, when asked again, Bush said: "I stand by the figure, a lot of innocent people have lost their life."

In 2006 a National Intelligence Estimate (a consensus report of the heads of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies) asserted that the Iraq war had increased Islamic radicalism and worsened the terror threat. The report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group led by Republican James Baker came out in late 2006, concluding that the situation in Iraq was "grave and deteriorating" and recommending that the then present military course of action be modified. In particular, the ISG recommended that the Bush administration (1) launch a diplomatic offensive with Iraq's neighbor states, particularly Iran, to help achieve stability, and (2) redeploy U.S. forces to shift their focus from combat and security operations to that of supporting the Iraqi army, with the expectation that U.S. combat forces not necessary for force protection could be withdrawn from Iraq by March 2008. A recent report of Brookings Institution has found, however, that, in case of a pullout of American forces from Iraq, terrorism groups will get stonger. President Bush admitted by the end of 2006 that there were strategic mistakes made in regards to the stability of Iraq, he maintained he would not change the overall Iraq strategy. Bush and his aides continued to stress his belief of the necessity to "stay the course" in Iraq. They accused critics, mainly Democrats who have called for a U.S. troop pullout or a timetable for withdrawal, of advocating a policy of "cut-and-run". On November 28, 2006, facing mounting criticism for his Iraq war policy, Bush told the NATO Summit 2006 in Latvia that "We'll continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete." On January 10, 2007 Bush addressed the U.S about the situation in Iraq. In his speech, he announced new initiatives, including most notably the "surge" of 21,500 more troops for Iraq, as well as a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and 1.2 billion dollars for these programs. The "surge" was opposed by many influential politicians in Washington, including some Republicans, such as Senator Chuck Hagel and Senator Norm Coleman. On February 16, 2007, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resoultion opposing the troop "surge" in Iraq by a vote of 246-182. On February 17, 2007, a similar resolution in the Senate failed to obtain the 60 (filibuster-proof) votes necessary to bring the resolution to debate and vote, with 33 Republican Senators and 1 Independent blocking the resolution largely seen as a repudiation of President Bush's policy from moving forward (7 Republican Senators voted with 49 Democratic Senators to bring the resolution to debate).

North Korea

President Bush publicly condemned Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, naming North Korea one of three states in an "axis of evil," and saying that "he United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." Within months, "both countries had walked away from their respective commitments under the U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework of October 1994."

North Korea's October 9 2006 detonation of a nuclear device further complicated President Bush's foreign policy, which centered for both terms of his presidency on " the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world." President Bush condemned North Korea's claims, reaffirmed his commitment to "a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," and stated that "transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States," for which North Korea would be held accountable.

Assassination attempt

On May 10, 2005, while Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, a live hand grenade was thrown towards the podium where he was standing and where Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was also seated. It landed in the crowd about 65 feet (20 meters) from the podium after hitting a girl. However, the grenade did not detonate because the red tartan (plaid) handkerchief wrapped tightly around it did not allow the firing pin to deploy fast enough. Vladimir Arutinian was arrested in July 2005 and admitted to throwing the grenade. He was convicted in January 2006 and was subsequently given a life sentence.

Criticism and public perception

Domestic perceptions

At the beginning of his first term, Bush was regarded by some as lacking legitimacy due to his narrow victory in Florida and the attendant controversy surrounding his electoral college victory, which included accusations of vote suppression and tampering. Bush began his presidency with approval ratings near 50%, however, following the September 11 attacks Bush gained an approval rating of greater than 85%, maintaining 80–90% approval for four months after the attacks. Since then, his approval ratings and approval of handling of domestic and foreign policy issues have steadily dropped. Bush has received heavy criticism for his handling of the Iraq War, his response to Hurricane Katrina, and to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, NSA warrantless surveillance, and Guantanamo Bay detention camp controversies. Additionally, critics have decried his frequent use of signing statements, contending that they are unconstitutional.

Bush has enjoyed strong support among Americans holding conservative views, as well as the military and those who support a military agenda. In the 2004 elections, 95-98% of the Republican electorate approved of him. This support waned, however, due mostly to Republicans' growing frustration with Bush on the issues of spending and illegal immigration. Many Republicans began criticizing Bush on his policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian Territories.

Polls conducted in 2006 showed an average of around 40% approval ratings for Bush, which contributed to what Bush called the "thumping" of the GOP in the 2006 mid-term elections. As of February 11, 2007, an average of major polls indicated that Bush's approval rating stood at 34.8%. A poll taken in mid-September 2006 found that 48 percent of Americans believed the war with Iraq had made the U.S. less safe, while 41 percent believed the war had made the U.S. safer from terrorism. Another poll showed that a majority of Americans, by a margin of 61 to 35 percent, believed that the United States was not better off because of Bush's policies. At the conclusion of 2006, an AP-AOL News telephone poll of 1,004 adults found President George W. Bush to be both the top villain and hero of the year. The president was followed in the villain poll by Osama bin Laden, who took in 8 percent to Bush's 25 percent, Saddam Hussein (6 percent) and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (5 percent). In the hero poll, Bush's 13 percent was followed by: Soldiers/troops in Iraq (6 percent), Jesus Christ (3 percent), Barack Obama (3 percent) and Oprah Winfrey (3 percent).

Bush's intellectual capacities have been questioned by the news media, as well as other politicians. Detractors tended to cite the various linguistic errors made by Bush during his public speeches (colloquially known as Bushisms). Bush's habit of mispronouncing words received much ridicule in the media and in popular culture. Even as early as the 2000 presidential debates, this was the subject of a Saturday Night Live sketch (see Strategery). Activist and filmmaker Michael Moore released Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004, making a plethora of accusations against Bush, most notably using public sentiments following 9/11 for political purposes, financial connections between the Bush family and the prominent Saudi Arabian families such as the royal family and the Bin Laden family, and lying about the cause for war in Iraq. In 2000 and again in 2004, Time magazine named George W. Bush as its Person of the Year, hailing him as the most influential person for these two years.

Foreign perceptions

Bush has been widely criticized in the international community; he was targeted by the global anti-war and anti-globalization campaigns, and criticized for his foreign policy in general. Bush's policies were also the subject of heated criticism in the 2002 elections in Germany and the 2006 elections in Canada. Bush was openly condemned by current and former international leaders such as Gerhard Schröder, Jean Chrétien, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Romano Prodi, Paul Martin, and notably Hugo Chávez. Later in Bush's presidency, tensions arose between himself and Vladimir Putin, which has led to a cooling of their relationship.

Bush has been described as having especially close personal relationships with Tony Blair and Vicente Fox, although formal relations are sometimes strained.

In 2006 a majority of respondents in 18 of 21 countries surveyed around the world were found to hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush. Respondents indicated that they judged his administration as "negative" for world security. A poll conducted in Britain named Bush the second biggest "threat to world peace" after Bin Laden, topping North Korean president Kim Jong-Il. According to a poll taken in November 2006, Finns also believed that Bush was the second biggest "threat to world peace" after Bin Laden. Kim Jong-Il came in third in the poll and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah came joint fourth.

Some people, such as Benjamin Ferencz, a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, expressed the view that Bush should be tried, along with Saddam Hussein, for starting a war of aggression, the supreme international crime under the Nuremberg Principles. Other experts also regarded the Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq as illegitimate: "There was no authorization from the U.N. Security Council ... and that made it a crime against the peace," said Francis Boyle, professor of international law, who also said the U.S. Army's field manual required such authorization for an offensive war. However, some foreign policy experts at the time had argued that the U.N. Security Council was a weak institution whose authorization for the invasion of Iraq was not necessary; pointing out that every permanent member of the U.N. Security Council had undertaken at least one war without the council's permission or endorsement, and no such authorization came from the U.N. in other U.S. military action such as in Vietnam, Haiti, Kosovo, Panama or Grenada, or for that matter President Jimmy Carter's attempt to rescue American hostages during the Iran Hostage Crisis.

See also

• List of Presidents of the United States
• George W. Bush legislation and programs
• September Dossier

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63. Norris, Michele (2005-02-09). "Laura Bush: Putting Boys in the Spotlight". NPR. Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
64. "President Signs Medicare Legislation". The White House. 2003-12-08. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
65. Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker (2005-02-12). "Social Security: On With the Show". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
66. "USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll results". USA Today. 2005-05-20. Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
67. "George W. Bush: The Un-science Guy". AlterNet. 2001-06-19. Retrieved 2006-11-05. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |first= (help)
68. ^ >"Bush Disses Global Warming Report". CBS News. 2002-06-04. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
69. >"NASA Scientist Rips Bush on Global Warming". MSNBC. 2004-10-27. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
70. >"60 Minutes: Rewriting the Science". CBS News. 2006-03-19. Retrieved 2007-01-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
71. >"Press Conference". White House. 2006-06-26. Retrieved 2007-01-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
72. Full text (and video) of 2007 State of the Union address
73. ^ "Executive Summary – The Clear Skies Initiative". White House. 2002-02-14. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
74. "Clear Skies Proposal Weakens the Clean Air Act". Sierra Club. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
75. "Bush creates world's biggest ocean preserve". MSNBC. 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2007-01-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
76. "The Nature Conservancy Applauds President Bush for Creating World's Largest Marine Conservation Area in Hawaii". The Nature Conservancy. 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2007-01-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
77. "AAAS Policy Brief: Stem Cell Research". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
78. "President Discusses Stem Cell Research". Office of the President of the United States.
79. "NIH's Role in Federal Policy [Stem Cell Information]". National Institutes of Health.
80. "Stem Cells in Limbo". TIME. 2003-08-11. Retrieved 2007-01-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
81. "Bush Vetoes Embryonic Stem Cell Bill". CNN.
82. CNN (2005-11-29). "Bush takes tough talk on immigration to Texas". Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
83. "Judge Asked to Suspend Ruling Against Wiretaps". The Washington Post. 2006-09-02. Retrieved 2006-09-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
84. ^ The Associated Press (2005-09-28). "Bush's detainee interrogation and prosecution plan approved by Senate". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-09-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
85. Knabb, Richard D; Rhome, Jamie R.; Brown, Daniel P (December 20 2005). Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Katrina: 23-30 August 2005 (PDF). National Hurricane Center. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.
86. Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana on August 27, The White House, August 27, 2005
87. Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Mississippi, The White House, August 28, 2005
88. Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Alabama, The White House, August 28, 2005
89. Dyson, Michael Eric (2006). Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. Basic Civitas. p. 57. ISBN 0-465-01761-4.
90. Statement on Federal Disaster Assistance for Louisiana
91. Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan
92. ^ Hurricane Katrina Timeline
93. Associated Press (3 September, 2005). "National Guard descends on New Orleans, giving evacuees hope". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-01-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
94. FEMA director Brown singled out by critics of federal response, Washington Post, September 6, 2005
95. Pete Yost, AP (2005-08-30). "Overseas deployments hinder Guard hurricane presence". ArmyTimes.com. Retrieved 2005-09-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
96. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." George W. Bush to Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, September 1 2005.
97. Page 6, Transcript. Presidential Videoconference Briefing, August 28 2005.
98. Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People
99. "President Bush's address to joint session of Congress". September 20 2001. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
100. "President Bush Speech on Missile Defence". Federation of American Scientists. 2001-05-01. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
101. Associated Press (2006-01-29). "Quarter Of Bush's $15 Billion For AIDS Going To Christian Groups". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
102. Jim VandeHei (2005-06-02). "In Break With U.N., Bush Calls Sudan Killings Genocide". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-07-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
103. "U.S.-India Joint Statement". Retrieved 2006-09-28.
104. Diehl, Jackson (2005-04-24). "Retreat From the Freedom Agenda". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-09-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
105. "President Bush Welcomes President Aliyev of Azerbaijan to the White House". Transcript from The Oval Office. Office of the Press Secretary. 2005-04-28. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
106. "Retreat From the Freedom Agenda". The Washington Post. 2006-04-24. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
107. "Azerbaijan Protests Face Crackdown". CBS News. 2005-11-27. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
108. "Supporters Of Slain Kazakh Oppositionist Open Probe". Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. 2006-08-29. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
109. "Setback for Democracy in Kazakhstan". Perspicacity Press Online. 2005-01-12. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
110. Morgan, David (2006-10-12). "U.S. seen retreating from democracy push". Reuters. Retrieved 2006-10-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
111. Presidential State of the Union Address January 29 2002
112. National Security Strategy of the United States, Part V September 2002
113. President Bush: Job Ratings Polling Report.com
114. Cummings, Bruce; et al. (2006). Inventing the Axis of Evil. New Press. ISBN-10: 1595580387. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
115. Lopez, George, "Perils of Bush's Pre-emptive War Doctrine", Indianapolis Star, October 3 2003
116. Prevent Our Enemies from Threatening Us, Our Allies, and Our Friends with Weapons of Mass Destruction
117. NIE: Al Qaeda 'Damaged' Becoming More Scattered CNN, September 26 2006
118. Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight Washington Post, September 24 2006
119. "Fact Sheet: International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan". Center for Defense Information. 2002-02-14. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
120. "More Dutch troops for Afghanistan". BBC News. 2006-02-03. Retrieved 2007-01-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
121. "Bush Pledges to Get bin Laden, Dead or Alive". USA Today. 2001-12-14. Retrieved 2007-01-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
122. "U.S. Concludes bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight". Washington Post. 2002-04-17. Retrieved 2007-01-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
123. "Taliban Appears To Be Regrouped and Well-Funded". Christian Science Monitor. 2003-05-08. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
124. "World Cannot Give Up on Afghanistan, Coalition Officials Say". U.S. Dept. of Defense. 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
125. "Frustrated Karzai toughens stance". BBC News. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
126. "Revived Taliban waging 'full-blown insurgency'". USA Today. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-06-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
127. "NATO Takes Over Afghanistan War". Syndey (AU) Morning Herald. 2006-09-30. Retrieved 2007-01-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
128. "Afghanistan & the United Nations". UN News Centre: Afghanistan. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
129. "Statement by the Secretary General on expansion of NATO's operation in Afghanistan". NATO: Press Release. 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
130. "President Bush Addresses United Nations General Assembly". The White House. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2006-06-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
131. Rumsfeld, Donald (2006-10-07). "Afghanistan: Five Years Later". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-06-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
132. January 29 2002 Presidential State of the Union Address(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html)
133. "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs". CIA. 2002. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
134. The National Security Archive at George Washington University
135. Jehl, Douglas, New York Times, "Bush and C.I.A. Won't Release Paper on Prewar Intelligence", July 14 2004.
136. Judis, John B. and Ackerman, Spencer, “The Selling of the Iraq War”, The New Republic, June 2003; Hersh, Seymour M., "The Stovepipe", The New Yorker, October 27 2003
137. Associated Press (2003-03-17). "U.S advises weapons inspectors to leave Iraq". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
138. United Nations (2003-02-13). "Enforcement Measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter". United Nations Charter. United Nations. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
139. Jan Frel (2006-07-10). "Could Bush Be Prosecuted for War Crimes?". AlterNet. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |author= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
140. "Iraq war illegal, says Annan". BBC. 2004-09-16. Retrieved 2006-07-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
141. Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate (March 18 2003).
142. Schifferes, Steve (2003-03-18). "US names 'coalition of the willing'". BBC. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
143. President Declares End To Major Combat In Iraq
144. Mission Not Accomplished Time Magazine
145. Times Online (2005-12-14). "Bush: we went to war on faulty intelligence". Times Online. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
146. Chossudovsky, Michel (2005-01-31). "Iraqi Elections: Media Disinformation on Voter Turnout?". Centre for Research on Globalisation. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
147. Danner, Mark (2005-04-28). "Iraq: The Real Election". The New York Review. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
148. "Colin Powell says Iraq in a 'civil war'". CNN. 2006-11-29. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
149. "Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000". By David Brown. Washington Post. October 11 2006.
150. "Dallas Commemorates Fallen 3000 U.S. Soldiers And 650,000 Iraqi Deaths". 2007-01-02. Retrieved 2007-01-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
151. Iraq Body Count Press Release 16 October 2006
152. Iraq Body Count. Background and overview.
153. "Critics say 600,000 Iraqi dead doesn't tally. But pollsters defend methods used in Johns Hopkins study". By Anna Badkhen. San Francisco Chronicle. October 12 2006.
154. "Report Stirs Debate on Terror Fight". New York Times. 2006-09-24. Retrieved 2006-09-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
155. The Iraq Study Group Report full text (PDF);Executive Summary
156. http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20070207-090510-4674r.htm
157. "President George W. Bush speaks during a video teleconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, on screen, and military commanders". 2006-10-21. Retrieved 2006-10-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
158. "Bush Reviews Iraq War Strategy as Violence Mounts (Update1)". 2006-10-21. Retrieved 2006-10-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
159. "Stay-the-course not U.S.'s only Iraq option: Baker". 2006-10-08. Retrieved 2006-10-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
160. "President Bush Discusses NATO Alliance During Visit to Latvia". The White House. November 28 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
161. "Admitting strategy error, Bush adds Iraq troops". MSNBC. January 11 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
162. "Hagel Blasts Troop Surge Plan". Associated Press. January 11 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
163. "From Senate floor, Coleman criticizes Bush plan for Iraq". Associated Press. January 11 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
164. "Senate Gridlocks on Iraq War Resolution". MSNBC.com. February 17 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "Some Democrats Want to Modify 2002 Iraq War Authorization". CNN.com. February 19 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
165. 2002 State of the Union Address
166. Pollack, Jonathan. "The United States, North Korea, and the End of the Agreed Framework." Naval War College Review, Summer 2003, Vol. LVI, No. 3.
167. 2002 State of the Union Address
168. President's Statement on North Korea Nuclear Test
169. "Bush grenade attacker gets life". CNN. 2006-01-11. Retrieved 2007-01-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
170. Roper Center (2006). "Job Performance Ratings for President Bush". Retrieved 2006-09-09.
171. Testimony of Bruce Fein, United States Senate (June 27 2006)
172. Associated Press (2006-02-15). "Republicans criticize Rice over Bush Mideast policy". Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
173. "Bush admits Republicans took a "thumping" (Reuters)". November 8,2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
174. RealClearPolitics Poll Averages
175. "Iraq". USA Today Gallup poll. September, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
176. "President Bush and the Bush Administration". Los Angeles Times Bloomberg L.P. September, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
177. "Poll: President Bush Top Villain Of 2006". Associated Press. 2006-12-28. Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
178. Lori McNelly (December 29 2006). "Hero or villain? Depends on your point of view". Chillicothe Gazette. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
179. Baker, Peter (2006-08-20). "Pundits Renounce The President". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-09-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
180. Walters, Simon (2006-08-19). "Blair 'feels betrayed by Bush on Lebanon'". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2006-09-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
181. "Bush gets bad rap on intelligence". St. Cloud Times Online. January 14 2001. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
182. Jacob Weisberg (November 4 2000). "Bush, in his own words". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
183. Dana Milbank (April 22 2001). "Serious 'Strategery' As Rove Launches Elaborate Political Effort, Some See a Nascent Clintonian 'War Room'". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
184. "Person of the Year President George W. Bush American Revolutionary". TIME Magazine. 2004. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
185. "And the Winner Finally Is...… George W. Bush". TIME Magazine. 2000. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
186. M. Overhaus, S. chieder (2002). "Die außenpolitischen Positionen der Parteien im Bundestagswahlkampf 2002" (PDF). Politik im Netz. {{cite journal}}: Text "volume 3" ignored (help)
187. CBC News (2005-12-14). "Was the American ambassador meddling in a Canadian election?". CBC.ca Reality Check Team. Retrieved 2006-09-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
188. Condon, George E. Jr. (2006-07-21). "Bush, White House now leery of Putin as Russian turns back on democracy". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
189. Keeping the U.S. at Bay, Mexican Presidential Candidate Looks to Move Past Fox's Failures Marcela Sanchez (March 3 2006)
190. Mexico's President Snubs Bush, Vicente Fox Cancels Visit To Bush Ranch To Protest Execution (August 15 2002)
191. Row over Bush security as Blair defends visit Ewen MacAskill, Hugh Muir and Julian Borger in Washington, The Guardian (November 11 2003)
192. "In 18 of 21 Countries Polled, Most See Bush's Reelection as Negative for World Security". BBC World Service and Program on International Policy Attitudes. . Retrieved 2006-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
193. "Polls: World Not Pleased With Bush". Associated Press. March 4 2004. Retrieved 2006-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
194. British believe Bush is more dangerous than Kim Jong-il
195. "He uhkaavat maailman turvallisuutta (They threat the world peace)". Iltalehti. 2006-11-11. Retrieved 2006-11-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
196. Glantz, Aaron (2006-08-25). "Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor". OneWorld. Retrieved 2006-09-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
197. Iraq war bashed at hearing for soldier who wouldn't go Hal Bernton, August 18 2006)
198. U.N. Blessing Is Just a Frill for a U.S. War in Iraq Walter Russell Mead, Los Angeles Times (February 23 2003)

v t e George W. Bush
43rd President of the United States (2001–2009) 46th Governor of Texas (1995–2000)
Presidency	Transition 1st inauguration 2nd inauguration Timeline 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 January 2009 Domestic policy Legislation and programs Economic policy Foreign policy International trips Bush Doctrine Russia summits Slovenia Slovakia War in Afghanistan Status of Forces Agreement Patriot Act No Child Left Behind Act Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act USA Freedom Corps Department of Homeland Security Space policy Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty "War on Terror" President's Council on Service and Civic Participation award Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy Email controversy Judicial appointments Supreme Court candidates John Roberts Harriet Miers Samuel Alito controversies Cabinet Pardons Impeachment efforts Executive orders Presidential proclamations Obama transition
Life and legacy	Childhood home Early life and career Presidential library Presidential portrait Military service controversy Killian documents controversy authenticity issues Professional life Governorship of Texas Prairie Chapel Ranch Walker's Point Estate Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
Speeches	Joint session of Congress (Feb 2001) Remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington (2001) Joint session of Congress (September 11 attacks) (2001) Mission Accomplished (2003) State of the Union addresses 2002 ("Axis of evil") 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Elections	U.S. House 1978 Gubernatorial 1994 1998 Presidential 2000 campaign primaries running mate selection convention debates election Bush v. Gore 2004 campaign primaries convention debates election
Public image	Bushisms Nicknames As the subject of books and films Fictionalized portrayals Miss Me Yet? "Yo, Blair"
Books	A Charge to Keep (1999) Decision Points (2010) 41: A Portrait of My Father (2014) Portraits of Courage (2017) Out of Many, One (2021)
Popular culture	Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004 documentary) W. (2008 film)
Family	Laura Bush (wife) Barbara Pierce Bush (daughter) Jenna Bush Hager (daughter) George H. W. Bush (father presidency) Barbara Bush (mother) Robin Bush (sister) Jeb Bush (brother) Neil Bush (brother) Marvin Bush (brother) Dorothy Bush Koch (sister) Barney (dog) Miss Beazley (dog) India (cat) Spot Fetcher (dog)
← Bill Clinton Barack Obama → Category

External links

• Official White House web site
• Official White House biography
• Republican National Committee biography
• Project Vote Smart information
• A Tale of Two Dubyas (Comparison between State of the Union Addresses and Election Debates)

Czech Roots of President George W. Bush

Moravian Brethren from the Czechlands

v t e Governors and lieutenant governors of Texas
Governors	J. P. Henderson Wood Bell J. W. Henderson Pease Runnels Houston Clark Lubbock Murrah Hamilton Throckmorton Pease Davis Coke Hubbard Roberts Ireland Ross Hogg Culberson Sayers Lanham Campbell Colquitt J. Ferguson Hobby Neff M. Ferguson Moody Sterling M. Ferguson Allred O'Daniel Stevenson Jester Shivers Daniel Connally Smith Briscoe Clements White Clements Richards Bush Perry Abbott
Lieutenant governors	Horton Greer Henderson Dickson Runnels Lubbock Clark Crockett Stockdale Jones J. W. Flanagan (acting) Campbell (ex officio) W. Flanagan (ex officio) Fountain (ex officio) Pickett (ex officio) Hubbard Sayers Storey Martin Gibbs Wheeler Pendleton Crane Jester Browning Neal A. B. Davidson Mayes Hobby Sr. Johnson L. Davidson T. W. Davidson Miller Witt Woodul Stevenson J. L. Smith Shivers Ramsey P. Smith Barnes Hobby Jr. Bullock Perry Ratliff Dewhurst Patrick

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