George W. Bush

George W. Bush, 2001-present

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. He was re-elected in 2004 and is currently serving his second term. He formerly served as the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. A Republican, he belongs to one of the most politically influential American families, being the son of former President George H. W. Bush and elder brother of Jeb Bush, the present Governor of Florida. He is sometimes referred to by the nickname Dubya. The nickname is often used in an admiring way by his supporters and in a derogatory way by his opponents. Bush was an entrepreneur in the oil industry in Texas and an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. After working on his father's presidential campaign, he purchased a share of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and in 1994 he was elected Governor of Texas. As governor, Bush worked on education reform, school finance and tort reform and sponsored the largest tax cut program in Texas history. He was re-elected as governor of Texas in 1998. Bush won the 2000 presidential election as the Republican candidate in a close and controversial contest. Although he did not secure a majority of the popular vote, he did win the required number of electoral votes after a very close battle in the state of Florida. As President, Bush pushed through a $1.3 trillion tax cut program and the No Child Left Behind Act, and has made efforts to privatize Medicare and Social Security. Bush has also pushed for socially conservative efforts such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, faith-based welfare initiatives, the Palm Sunday Compromise and the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which aims to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and thus prevent recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush declared a global War on Terrorism and ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy Al-Qaeda and to capture Osama Bin Laden. His response to 9/11 led to an immediate surge in his popularity. Following an unsuccessful attempt at convincing Saddam Hussein diplomatically to yield to further weapons inspections, Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq although the inspections that were in progress at the time had not yet concluded and the specifically designated weapons of mass destruction that the Coalition of the Willing invaded to capture have never been found. Following the overthrow of Saddam's regime, Bush committed the U.S. to establishing democracy in the Middle East, and specifically in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the short term. A self-described "war President",[1] Bush won re-election in 2004 after an intense and heated election campaign, becoming the first candidate to win a majority vote in 16 years, as well as the largest tally of votes for any presidential candidate. Since being re-elected in 2004, Bush has received increasingly heated criticism, even from former allies, for his management of the Iraq War and the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal, as well as domestic issues such as stem cell research, Hurricane Katrina, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, record budget deficits, the nomination of Harriet Miers, and a number of scandals, such as the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal and the Plame CIA leak controversy. According to opinion polling, his popularity has declined.

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush

The present one. George W. Bush.

Al Gore, but George W. Bush got the key to the White House