Chapter 25
Getting the Call: George W. Bush
IN THIS CHAPTER
Governing Texas
Winning a disputed election
Leading the country through the unimagined
Going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq
Fighting a recession
George W. Bush, shown in Figure 25-1, certainly has the background for the presidency: His grandfather served in the U.S. Senate, and his father was president. However, it wasn’t until his father was defeated in his bid for reelection as president in 1992 that George W. became involved in politics. He ran for governor of Texas, defeating a popular incumbent, and after being reelected by a record margin, he decided to go for the White House.
The 1992 election, which saw his father lose the presidency, hurt George W. Bush deeply. He felt that the Democrats had smeared his father’s reputation, and he vowed revenge. Many see his father’s loss to Bill Clinton as the catalyst for Bush’s ambitions in politics.
George W. Bush prevailed in the most disputed election in U.S. history, and he seemed destined to preside over a contentious and partisan presidency. Then terrorism struck the United States, and President Bush was called upon to answer the attack.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
FIGURE 25-1: George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States.
Bush’s Early Career
In 1977, Bush ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost. After his defeat, Bush went back to the oil industry, which he’d worked in after getting his MBA in 1975. He started his own company, Arbusto Energy Inc. (Arbusto means “bush” in Spanish.) The company didn’t do well, though when it merged with a larger company, George W. stayed on as CEO. Bush was paid handsomely when he sold the company in 1986.
In 1987, Bush went to Washington to help his father run for the presidency. He had worked on his father’s 1980 presidential campaign and became an advisor when his father entered the White House. In 1989, he returned to Texas to buy a stake in the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team. He became the spokesman for the team, which made him well-known in Texas.
The oil business did not make Bush a millionaire; rather, it was the sale of his share of the Texas Rangers that made him his fortune. He was in debt until he sold his oil company and used the money to buy into the Texas Rangers.
Running for governor
After exploring the possibility, Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1994. Going into the race, Bush knew it would be tough to overcome his underdog status. The incumbent governor, Ann Richards, enjoyed good ratings and was well liked. But, instead of launching bitter personal attacks as his opponent did, Bush talked about issues, emphasizing education reform and reducing crime. He even campaigned in traditional Democratic strongholds, where his fluency in Spanish helped him with Mexican-Americans.
Bush’s victory in Texas was the great surprise of the 1994 elections. Bush won in some traditional Democratic areas such as East Texas. Victory was sweet for Bush. He defeated the politician who had savagely attacked his father in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic national convention.
Governing Texas
As governor of Texas, Bush showed his ability to negotiate, compromise, and make friends. He courted the most important Democrats in the state — the Democrats still controlled the legislature and the powerful lieutenant governor’s position — and quickly established close friendships with the Democratic speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor.
Bush accomplished much in his first term as the governor of Texas. He reduced the number of Texans on welfare, reformed the education system, and put a ceiling on lawsuit judgments. By the time he was up for reelection in 1998, Bush was a shoo-in. Many prominent Democrats endorsed him, including the Democratic lieutenant governor, and he beat his Democratic opponent with 69 percent of the vote. He received 49 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas, a record for a Republican.
Bush accomplished even more in his second term as governor. He raised salaries for teachers and pledged to have every child reading by the time he or she graduated from school. Statistics showed that his education reforms were working, as educational test scores increased throughout the state.
Running for the Presidency
In early 1999, Bush formed an exploratory committee to evaluate his chances of making a successful bid for the presidency. Bush knew that he would face tough competition for the nomination, especially from Senator John McCain from Arizona and former Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole, but he emerged as the Republican nominee.
Bush returned to his Texas themes — education and welfare reform — believing that they would work well nationwide. He labeled himself a compassionate conservative to attract women and minority voters, on whom the election hinged. Bush emphasized education and social security reform and pledged to strengthen the military and cut taxes. The strategy worked.
Three debates between the major-party presidential candidates — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore — were a decisive component of the election. On paper, the debates favored Gore, a seasoned debater, but during the first debate Bush appeared knowledgeable and experienced, while Gore appeared bored and arrogant. The media declared Bush the winner, and he regained a small lead in the polls. Both candidates performed well in the next two debates, and the polls didn’t change. Bush clung to a small lead.
Five days before the election took place, it was revealed that Governor Bush had been arrested for drunken driving more than 20 years prior. Not many people were affected by the story, but a small minority moved to Al Gore, giving him a small lead in the polls. The night before the election, two polls favored Bush and two favored Gore. It would be a close race indeed.
Surviving the 2000 Election
On Election Day, both candidates won the states they were expected to. The election seemed to be over when the networks called the state of Florida for Al Gore. Bush couldn’t win without its electoral votes. But, two hours later the networks put Florida back in the undecided column.
This error proved costly for Bush. Subsequent studies show that the networks’ error depressed Republican voter turnout in key states that Bush ended up losing by just a few thousand votes.
At one o’clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time, the networks declared Bush the winner in Florida. Gore was on the phone with Bush, congratulating him, when he was informed that Bush’s lead in Florida was dwindling. Gore retracted his concession, and Florida moved back to the undecided column. When the country woke up the next morning, there was no winner. Al Gore had won the popular vote, but neither candidate had a majority in the Electoral College. Florida would decide the election.
Going to court
On November 9, 2000, two days after the election, Bush’s lead in Florida was 1,784 votes out of 6 million votes cast. The closeness of the race triggered an automatic recount under Florida law. The recount was completed by November 10, and Bush’s lead had declined to 327 votes.
The Democratic Party asked for a manual recount in four traditionally Democratic counties in Florida. The Bush campaign objected and went to court to block the recount, claiming that it would be partisan, and therefore unreliable. The Gore campaign argued that the ballot in Palm Beach County was confusing and that questionable ballots should be inspected and counted. The federal courts refused to stop the recounts, and Florida gave the four counties until November 14, 2000, to complete their recounts.
The Gore campaign objected, claiming that a thorough recount would take longer than the court-imposed deadline of November 14. A district court upheld the deadline, but ruled that all recounts could be included in the final tally. Now the Bush campaign objected. The Florida Supreme Court finally ruled on November 21, 2000, that all manual recounts had to be included in the final vote totals and set a new deadline for the recounts to be completed: November 26, 2000. On that date, the Republican secretary of state for Florida, Katherine Harris, certified George W. Bush as the winner of Florida’s electoral votes. The final margin was 537 votes.
Because the final vote didn’t include Miami-Dade County, which stopped the recounts because it couldn’t complete them on time, the Gore campaign contested the final results. Gore appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which called for a new statewide manual recount.
Being appointed
The Bush campaign took the case to the United States Supreme Court, which stopped all recounts on December 9, 2000. Three days later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a split 5 to 4 decision that no further recounts could be held in Florida. It was all over for the Gore campaign. One day later, Vice President Gore conceded and congratulated George W. Bush in a nationally televised address. Bush was now the new president of the United States.
President George Walker Bush (2001–2009)
George W. Bush assumed the presidency on January 20, 2001. With the hotly contested election behind him, many observers predicted that he would have a tough time as president. He didn’t receive a mandate from the public, and many in the United States considered him a court-appointed president.
Bush attempted to use his inaugural address to appeal to the people who had voted against him. He emphasized a need to reform education and social security, and highlighted his tax cut plan. Tough times lay ahead.
Domestic accomplishments
Bush proceeded quickly after entering the White House. He proposed tax cuts, a new education plan, and a faith-based initiative to give more funds to faith-based organizations helping the needy. By the time he left office in 2009, his major domestic accomplishments included:
- The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (2001) and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (2003): Congress passed both of Bush’s tax cut proposals, which cut individual, capital gains, and estate taxes. While the plans cut taxes for most taxpayers, especially families with children, the cuts increased the federal debt by almost $1.5 trillion.
- The Medicare Act of 2003: This act provided for the first-time coverage for prescription drugs for the elderly in Medicare Part D.
- The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA): In 2008, Bush signed GINA into law. This act makes it illegal to discriminate against a person in the areas of health insurance and employment based on a person’s genetic information.
- No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): Signed into law in 2002, this act emphasized standards-based education and provided more federal funding to improve and assess test scores for public school students.
- Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Established in 2003, this was the single largest global response to any disease, and $65 billion was spent by 2014 to combat AIDS globally. The plan has so far provided for the testing of 56.7 million people and the subsequent treatment of 7.7 million AIDS patients, mostly in Africa.
Bush, however, did fail to partially privatize social security because Congress refused to go along with the idea.
In the summer of 2001, Republican Senator James Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an Independent. The transition returned the Senate to the Democrats, and instead of having Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress, Bush had to work with a hostile Senate.
Foreign policy
Bush’s foreign policy faced criticism. Bush proposed to build an antiballistic missile system and had to withdraw from the longstanding Antiballistic Missile Treaty signed with the Soviet Union to do so. Despite the objections of most European allies and Russia, Bush announced in December 2001 that the United States would pull out of the treaty.
Bush also refused to recognize the Kyoto protocol, an international treaty that calls for lowering the emission of gases destroying the ozone layer. The rest of the world was furious. Bush looked like an isolationist out to antagonize the rest of the world.
Disaster Strikes
On September 11, 2001, the unimaginable happened. Terrorists hit the United States. Two hijacked passenger airplanes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, leading to their collapse. Officials listed 2,606 U.S. and foreign citizens who died in the attack on the twin towers.
Soon after the two buildings were hit, a third hijacked plane struck the Pentagon, killing 125 people. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania when the passengers attempted to overtake the hijackers. Its assumed target was the White House or Camp David.
The shocked and angry nation demanded action. President Bush went on national television on September 20, 2001, to reassure the U.S. public and explain what had happened. Bush laid blame for the attack on the al Qaeda terrorist network and its founder, Osama Bin Laden. Al Qaeda was headquartered in Afghanistan. Bush told the ruling Taliban regime to hand over Bin Laden or face the consequences.
To reassure the American public, President Bush uttered the following words in October 2001. “We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.”
After some public officials complained about the time it took to strike back at al Qaeda, Bush responded:
“When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive.”
Punishing terrorists
After the attack on September 11, 2001, President Bush set out to create an international alliance to fight terrorism. Most European countries pledged military aid, and NATO invoked Article 5 of its charter. Invoking this article obligated all NATO countries to join the U.S. in the fight against terrorism — to treat the attack on the United States as an attack on their own soil.
Even the Islamic world condemned the attack and assured support for U.S. efforts. Pakistan offered much-needed military bases that the United States could use to strike at Afghanistan. To the surprise of many, even Russia agreed to help and provide bases if necessary.
The coalition came together by late September 2001. The U.S. was ready to strike at Afghanistan, which still harbored Osama Bin Laden.
In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President Bush referred to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the Axis of Evil. The three countries were accused of harboring terrorists and producing weapons of mass destruction. Bush further proclaimed that the United States would not stand idly by while these three countries threaten the world.
In September of 2002, President Bush officially stated a new American policy toward terrorism, known as the Bush Doctrine. It declared that the United States will destroy any terrorist threat to it and its population before that threat can reach the United States. While preferring to act with the international community to eliminate any such threats, the United States would not be afraid to act alone if necessary.
After the terrorist attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act to combat terrorism. It granted the federal government more powers in its fight against terrorism. These new powers included wiretapping, surveillance of suspected terrorists, and the collection of personal information, including financial, educational, health, and medical records. Despite many objections to the act, most of it became permanent by 2006.
Dealing with Afghanistan
In January 2004, Afghanistan approved a new constitution creating an American type democracy with an elected president and a bicameral Congress, with a House of the People and a House of Elders. On October 9, 2004, Afghanistan held its first free presidential election. Turnout reached 70 percent, and interim president Hamid Karzai easily won. Successful congressional elections followed, and by 2005 the country seemed to be on its way to becoming a successful democracy.
By 2006 these hopes were fading. The Taliban, with help from Pakistani tribesmen, began an unexpected insurgency in southern Afghanistan. An upsurge in violence followed. The Taliban began to engage in terrorist activities, such as car bombs and suicide bombings, targeting not only foreign military but also Afghani civilians.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), established by the United Nations in 2001, and headed by NATO (see Chapter 17) since 2003, to keep the peace in Afghanistan, was now forced into open combat with the Taliban.
By 2011, total ISAF forces numbered 140,000, with about 100,000 being American troops.
To make matters worse, the new Karzai administration proved to be politically inept and very corrupt. It tolerated the production of illegal drugs, and when George W. Bush left office in early 2009, over half of Afghanistan’s GDP was generated by the drug trade. Afghanistan was on the brink of falling back into a state of anarchy, and Bush’s successor Barack Obama was left to clean up the mess.
Going to war against Iraq
By the fall of 2002, the Bush administration had set its sights on Iraq. President Bush had earlier in the year declared that Iraq was a sponsor of terrorism and was attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction, defined as either nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons that can cause mass civilian casualties. By October of 2002, the president stated that it was time to remove the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein unless he cooperated with the United Nations inspection teams. Congress gave him a free reign by approving going to war on October 2, 2002.
On March 17, 2003, the Bush administration presented Saddam Hussein with an ultimatum: “Leave Iraq or face war in two days.” Saddam Hussein refused, and the coalitions’ attack on Iraq began on March 20, 2003. Labeled Operation Iraqi Freedom, American and British troops moved quickly through southern Iraq, inhabited by friendly Shiite Muslims, who had suffered much under Saddam Hussein’s rule, and took the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on April 9, 2003. After pro-American Kurdish forces, which had been the victim of attacks with chemical weapons in the 1980s by Saddam Hussein, took the northern part of Iraq, including the regional capital of Mosul, the war was won. By April 14, 2003, Saddam Hussein had been removed by force. Hussein himself was not captured until December of 2003, a few weeks after his two sons, and heirs apparent, had been killed in a shoot-out with American forces. After being tried by an Iraqi court, Saddam Hussein was hanged in December 2006.
Even though American, British, and Israeli intelligence claimed that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction, no such weapons were ever found after the war was won.
After losing the first Gulf War in 1991 (see Chapter 24), Iraq was required to open the country to United Nations inspectors. These inspectors observed Iraq’s destruction of its arsenal of weapons and searched the country for chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Suddenly in 1998, Iraq refused to let the inspectors continue and was now in violation of United Nations resolutions. Overall, Iraq would violate 17 United Nations resolutions before the Bush administration put pressure on the country in the fall of 2002. At this time, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding that Saddam Hussein comply with the United Nations and allow inspections to resume. While Saddam Hussein begrudgingly complied by slowly allowing for inspectors to return, the United States began to build up a massive military presence in Kuwait and Qatar. When inspectors reported only partial and not complete compliance by Iraq in February 2003, the international community split. The United Nations inspections teams argued that they needed more time and full compliance to find any weapons of mass destruction, while the United States and Great Britain claimed that Hussein was developing them and that he was violating United Nations resolutions by not fully complying.
The United States now asked the Security Council of the United Nations to authorize the use of military force against Iraq. Russia, France, and China refused to authorize such a resolution, and the United States and its allies, about 35 nations also called “the coalition of the willing,” decided to move ahead without any United Nations support.
Dealing with the defeated Iraq
With the country falling into a state of total anarchy, American and British forces had a rough time maintaining peace in Iraq and rebuilding the country. Even though the United States returned sovereignty to Iraq on June 30, 2004, American troops had to remain in Iraq until the new Iraqi government could create a police and military force powerful enough to maintain itself in office.
In January 2005, elections were held for a National Assembly to draft a new constitution for the country. Not surprisingly, the three ruling groups in Iraq — the majority Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims, and the Kurds — had a tough time agreeing on a constitution, which would implement power sharing between the three groups. However, by fall of 2005 a compromise was reached. On October 15, the Iraqi people approved a new constitution with 79 percent of the vote, and on December 15, 2005, the Iraqi public went to the polls one more time to elect its first democratic government. Despite these political successes, sectarian violence and terrorist acts sponsored by al Qaeda cells continued to increase throughout 2006, and President Bush decided to implement a strategy referred to as the “Surge” in 2007. It called for 21,000 more American troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar province. Close to 170,000 U.S. troops were now stationed in Iraq. In addition to suppressing escalating violence, a strategy of creating closer relations with the Iraqi public was implemented. Designed to reduce Iraqi casualties and improve the lives of the average Iraqi, the strategy proved to be successful. By 2008 the number of acts of violence in Iraq had reached an all-time low. In late 2008, President Bush and the Iraqi government agreed for all American forces to leave Iraqi cities in June of 2009 and for U.S. troops to leave all of Iraq by 2011, unless the Iraqi government requested some troops to stay.
By the time President Bush left office in January 2009, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had cost the country almost $1 trillion. Overall, $650 billion was spent on the operations in Iraq and $200 billion in Afghanistan.
Winning Reelection
President Bush decided to run for reelection in 2004. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary and in the fall of 2004 faced off against his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. The major issues of the campaign were the ongoing conflict in Iraq, the lack of weapons of mass destruction in the country, and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison. With the economy going strong and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American public was not willing to change leadership and reelected George W. Bush with 51 percent of the vote and 286 Electoral College votes.
At the start of his second term, President Bush made two historic cabinet appointments. Condoleezza Rice became the first African-American female Secretary of State and Alberto Gonzales the first Latino Attorney General.
Two major incidences occurred during President Bush’s second term that undermined his presidency: Hurricane Katrina and the Great Recession.
Getting sunk by a hurricane
In 2005 one of the most powerful hurricanes in U.S. history struck the Gulf Coast (Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana). Hurricane Katrina packed quite a punch with 175 mph winds and became the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history. Katrina caused $81.2 billion in damage and killed over 1,800 people.
With the hurricane approaching, the Governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency on August 26, 2005, and two days later asked the residents of New Orleans to evacuate. Many chose to ignore the order or did not get out in time. The next day 80 percent of New Orleans flooded. President Bush, who was vacationing on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help with the disaster. They acted late. It took a full week for the National Guard to arrive in New Orleans to rescue thousands of stranded people, and many blamed President Bush for the delay, as well as for not using sufficient resources and appointing the incompetent leadership of FEMA. Most damaging to his presidency were images of desperate people trying to survive the aftermath of the flooding, while the president was vacationing in Texas. Bush’s image never recovered, and in 2006 the Republican Party lost both houses of Congress to the Democrats. For the remainder of his term, Bush now had to deal with a hostile Congress.
The Great Recession of 2007/2008
After six years of economic growth, the American economy began to decline by 2007. Interest rates rose and many Americans who had taken out variable mortgages, which increase when interest rates go up, were suddenly unable to make their mortgage payments. After foreclosures increased, mortgage companies began to fail. The two largest American mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were close to bankruptcy and had to receive a bailout from the federal government. In a panic, the U.S. public stopped spending money, further hurting the economy. In early 2008, Bush announced the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which provided taxpayers rebates of $300 to $600 in the summer of 2018. It was too late. By September 2008 major investment firms including Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the stock market crashed, and the country went into a full-blown recession. Banks and businesses such as Chrysler and General Motors (GM) asked for government help. In one of his last acts as president, in late 2008, Bush announced an $800 billion bailout of banks, mortgage companies, and other businesses such as carmakers. By the time he left office in early 2009, the country was in its worst recession since the Great Depression.
Going into Retirement
President Bush proved to be very gracious with the new incoming Obama administration. He worked closely with the incoming president and refused to criticize him. Instead, he publicly wished President Obama a successful presidency.
When asked about his refusal to criticize President Obama, Bush replied:” I love my country a lot more than I love politics.”
Vowing to stay out of politics, George W. Bush became involved in charitable work. At President Obama’s urging, he co-established the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund with former President Clinton to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The fund raised $54.5 million until it ceased operations in 2012. After retiring, Bush founded the George W. Bush Institute in 2009. The Institute is a public policy center located in Dallas, Texas, with the goal of advancing freedom in the United States and globally, by increasing economic growth, educational opportunities, women’s rights, and global health. Next, President Bush took up writing books, and in 2010, he released his memoirs Decision Points, which sold 2 million copies in two months. After the success of his first book, he released a well-received biography of his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, in 2014, entitled 41: A Portrait of My Father.
Disapproving of negative politics and upset by Republican candidate Donald Trump’s treatment of his brother Jeb, who was also running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, George W. Bush did not vote for Donald J. Trump in 2016, instead leaving the presidential bracket on the ballot blank.
President Bush became an avid painter in his retirement. Many of his works are on display in his presidential library in Dallas.