In New Haven, Connecticut, George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946. He is the eldest of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush’s six children. Since the 1950s, the Bush family had been involved in business and politics. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a former Wall Street banker and progressive Republican senator from Connecticut.
Lastly, his father, George W. Bush, was a businessman, diplomat, and US vice president and president.
George H.W. Bush relocated his family to Midland, Texas, in 1948, where he made his fortune in the oil industry. George W. Bush spent most of his life in Midland, where he attended school through the seventh grade. George W. Bush enrolled at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, after the family moved to Houston in 1961. He was a three-sport athlete there, playing baseball, basketball, and football. George W. Bush was a good student with a reputation for being a nuisance on occasion. Despite this, he was able to attend Yale University in 1964, thanks to family connections.
George W. Bush was a prominent Yale student who served as president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and participated in rugby. Grades take a back seat to Yale’s social life for Bush. Despite his wealthy upbringing, he was at ease in any situation and had many friends and acquaintances. Like his father and grandfather, George Walker Bush, George W. Bush joined Yale’s clandestine Skull and Bones organization. This invitation-only club includes some of America’s most prominent and elite family members.
After his draft Deferment, George W. Bush enrolled in the Texas Air National Guard two weeks before graduation. The Vietnam War was at its pinnacle in 1968. Although the Guard unit had an extensive waiting list, Bush got accepted thanks to the spontaneous assistance of a family acquaintance. In June 1970, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his fighter pilot qualification. Bush was honorably released from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974, despite sporadic attendance and questions over whether he had fully fulfilled his military obligations. Get to know the first lady of George W. Bush here.
Personal Life
Following his Guard service, George W. Bush continued his education by enrolling at Harvard Business School, where he honored his Master of Business Administration in 1975. He subsequently went to Midland and began working in the oil industry for a family friend before eventually founding his own oil and gas company. Laura Welch, a school teacher, and the librarian, was introduced to Bush by friends during a backyard picnic in 1977. He proposed after a three-month romance, and they married on November 5, 1977. Bush continued to expand his firm in Midland, Texas, where the couple settled.
George W. Bush attributes his life’s order to his wife. Before his marriage, he experienced several unpleasant alcohol-related incidents. He became a born-again Christian shortly after marrying Laura and joined the United Methodist Church. Barbara and Jenna, the couple’s twin daughters, were born in 1981. Bush sold his faltering oil company to Harken Energy Corporation in 1986 in exchange for equity and a position on the board of directors. He also stopped drinking and got more involved in his church at this time.
Governor of Texas
George W. Bush and his family relocated to Washington, DC in 1988 to support his father’s presidential campaign, participating in campaign activities and meeting key individuals. After his father’s triumph, he returned to Texas and joined a group of businessmen who bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1989. George Walker Bush rose to the top of the group fast and made some shrewd moves. Bush gained a reputation as a successful businessman as a result of the team’s success. Bush reportedly sold his portion of the team for 17 times his initial investment in 1998.
George W. Bush pronounced to run for governor of Texas as a Republican after his father’s reelection loss to Bill Clinton in 1992. His ties to the Rangers and his family’s fame aided him in defeating incumbent Democrat Ann Richards in the 1994 election. His campaign emphasized welfare and tort reform, as well as crime reduction and education reform. The competition was tense and rough, with charges of financial misconduct on one side and homosexuality on the other. With 53 percent of the vote, Bush became the first child of a US president to be elected governor of a state. In 1998, Bush became the first governor of Texas to be elected to two four-year terms in a row.
George W. Bush acquired a nonpartisan governor by appealing to moderate Republicans and Christian conservatives within his party. He promoted the “compassionate conservatism” concept, which blended limited government, sympathy for the poor, and personal responsibility. Because the previous governor’s administration had left the state’s treasury in surplus, Bush campaigned for a tax cut and increased education investment. He championed educational reform by tying teachers’ pay to student achievement on standardized tests, and he signed legislation decreasing the age at which juveniles can be tried in adult courts.
First-term as a President
George W. Bush started his presidential campaign in 1999, and after a tumultuous sequence of primaries, he won the Republican presidential nomination. The 2000 presidential election in the middle of George W. Bush and Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, was tight and contentious. There was no apparent winner as Election Day progressed.
His administration sparked even more debate when he announced that the United States would not adhere to the Kyoto Protocol for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, citing probable economic hardship. Click the link to learn more about the presidency of George W. Bush.
Second-term as a President
George W. Bush attempted for reelection in 2004. Even though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were failing, and his efforts to alter Social Security had been met with fierce opposition, Bush’s electoral base remained loyal. He was able to win reelection in November over Democratic rival Senator John Kerry. During his second administration, Bush campaigned for immigration reform, which many conservatives opposed, and easing environmental restrictions, which many liberals opposed. The Bush administration’s inadequate reaction to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans lowered his approval rating even further.
The country faced considerable problems in 2008, as George W. Bush approached the final year of his administration. The US was engaged in two foreign wars, and the Clinton administration’s budget surplus had turned into a multi-trillion-dollar debt due to military expenditures, tax cuts, and poor economic development. The country was rocked by a major credit crisis in early fall 2008, which drove the stock market into free decline and widespread layoffs. The Bush administration rushed to get a contentious $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed by Congress to bail out the housing and banking industries.
US Presidents | ||