George Walker Bush
George walker Bush was born on 6th July, 1946 and was the 43rd president of the United States of America from 2001 to 2009 when he ceased to serve as the president after he successively completed his second term as per the US constitution. He was a son to the former US president George Herbert Walker Bush thereby becoming the second son of a president to follow his father’s footsteps after John Quincy Adams. He came to office after a hotly contested and the most controversial election in the United States of America. In 2004 he was re-elected as the American president after defeating his opponent John F. Kerry.
President Bush is famous for the undying commitment he shown on the war against terrorism but was infamous because of his foreign policies which to an extent were said to be unliterary made something that cost his fame. His popularity particularly went down when he launched the Iraq War in his bid to oust Saddam Hussein on allegations that he was making weapons of mass destruction despite the fact that the United Nations had given him a clean bill of health. This war is cited as one of the main factors that led to the recent American economic recession as millions of US dollars were spent in financing the war.
This research paper is mainly going to focus on the life of George Walker Bush, the 43rd US president and starts by giving brief about Bush and the proceeds in the main body to discuss in-depth about his life highlighting his controversial side of life for example alcoholism and drug use and also discusses about his career as a president His early life: George walker was born in New Haven but in 1948 his family relocated to Texas.
Academic-wise Bush was bright as he was able to secure himself a position at Yale University where he graduated with a bachelor degree in History. After he graduated, to be like his father, he went to San Antonio where he trained as a pilot at Lackland Air Force Base and became a fighter pilot where he served as a part timer in the Texas air National Guard. In 1975 he again graduated from Harvard University with a Master’s degree in Business Administration and having learned business skills, Walker returned to his country where he established an energy business just like his father.
His part in the business involved making arrangement for oil drilling activities by looking for geologists among other related issues (Bush and Dietrich 123). Before Bush married Laura, he was involved in many cases of alcohol abuse for example he was arrested near his home at Kennebunkport on 4th September for driving while drunk and his Maine’s driving license was revoked until 1978 when it was renewed.
Though his license was suspended, Bush would still drive and to make the matter worse, driving when drunk for example he nearly killed his 16 years old brother when he hit a waste bin and got stuck under the car but he drove and dragged it all the way to his home. Apart from drinking alcohol, he is said to have been using drugs such as cocaine although there is no enough proof to substantiate these claims (Marquez 14).
His business and early political life: Walker’s political career started to emerge in 1977 when he declared his interest in vying for a seat in the House of Representatives and it is during this time that he met and married his wife, Laura Welch. After a hotly contested primary elections he lost in the general election in 1978 due to the negative campaign that was preached by his Democrat opponent who termed Bush as an outsider who new nothing about the prime requirements of Texas voters.
After losing, Bush resumed to his energy business where he managed to establish other oil exploration companies like the Arbusto Energy Inc. Two years later, he was in politics again where he campaigned for his father as a vice president who indeed qualified for a two year term. Although Bush was greatly interested in oil business, his business brought marginal income and for this reason he kept renaming it perhaps to give it a new lease of life for example, the Airbusto was renamed to Bush Exploration.
In 1884 in an effort to strengthen his company, he merged with other big companies such as Spectrum 7 where he became its chairman. Though this was the case, again his expectations never materialized as the newly formed company was affected by the fall in oil prices and for this reason it was changed in 1986 to Harken Energy Corporation with Bush becoming one of the Board of Director members and its consultant (Bush and Dietrich 124).. Bush campaigning for his father: In 1987, Bush moved to Washington where he assisted his father with presidential campaigns and also served as his advisor.
He would be dispatched to various regions to assess the loyalty of his chief campaigners. After his father won the elections, he continued being his advisor and his work also included assessing and approving people who were chosen to serve in his father’s government but after some time he went back to Dallas where he became a stakeholder in a Texas baseball team (Marquez. 6). Although he relocated to Texas, his role as a political advisor of his father remained as he would from time to time visit Washington to have talks with his father and other personnel in the White House.
In 1992 he was at politics again campaigning for his father but unfortunately this time he lost to Bill Clinton something that marked the turning point of Bush’s life as from there on he started focusing and furthering his own political ambitions (Bush and Adler 56). His political ambitions: In 1994, Bush declared his interest to vie for a governor seat in Texas where he hotly contested against Ann Richards. In his campaigns, he promised to conduct various reforms for example in the welfare and in tort. He also promised that he would improve education status and reduce crime levels.
This time Bush was lucky to lead with 53 percent against his competitor Ann Richards who in his campaigns was termed as a ‘foreigner’ for having spent a lot of time outside Texas and thus according to Bush, he had no idea of what Texas’ residents needed. This was the same tactic that had been used against him during the in 1978’s presidential elections. After his first term as the governor was over, he contested again for his second term against Garry Mauro who was by then the Land Commissioner in Texas and won by 69 percent becoming the first person to win governor’s seat twice in the history of Texas (Info please).
He was able to fulfill many of the promises he made to his people and because of this he earned himself a reputation of a person who can perform if elected as the president of the US. This greatly encouraged him to vie for this position something that he did in June 1999 on a Republican ticket. He contested for this seat against other republicans such as John McCain, Dan Quayle, Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes among others and he was lucky enough to win the Republican presidential candidacy to face the Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore and Pat Buchanan who vied on the Reform Party Ticket (Marquez.
8). Bush as US president: According to Bush and Adler (78), the results of this elections turned controversial when Bush won over Al Gore with less than one-half percent and according to a Florida law, if the difference between the winner is half of one percent then a recount has to be done. An automatic recount was done which put Bush ahead of Al Gore with about three hundred votes and a manual recount was proposed but after a long tussle, Bush was declared the winner by the Supreme Court of United States thereby becoming the US president elect.
On 20th January 2001, Bush was officially inaugurated as the president of US. In his first term according to (White House), he achieved much of what he had promised for example, tax reduction, education improvement and improving the economy of the country. Most of Bush’s foreign policies could be considered controversial for example his authorization of limited military attacks on Iraq as a way of enforcing sanctions and embargoes that had been imposed during the Persian Gulf War. He was also forced to make new foreign policies when terrorists raided the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11th September, 2001.
These attacks were blamed on Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda network and he vowed to use whatever resources that were at his disposal to fight this organization something that is ongoing up to now. It is though the same policy that he vowed to fight countries that were running nuclear programs spearheaded by Iraq where in 2003 authorized the US forces to attack Iraq despite the fact that no such weapons had been found after the UN’s investigators (White House). Bush and his foreign affairs: The move to attack a foreign country on mere allegation that they have nuclear weapons ruined his good reputation.
He miscalculated this war thinking that it would be over within a short time only to turn out to be a protracted war that would last for years. A lot of resources have been spent on this war making it the most expensive war after the Civil War something that has rendered US economy weak. After his first term was over, he pleaded with his people to re-elect him as a president so that he could wipe out terrorism in the world and turn it a better place but this is yet to be done as terrorist activities are ongoing.
His dreams came true and in 2004 he found himself alone contesting on a republican ticket and thus faced John Kerry, a Democrat in the presidential elections and won. He was accused of engaging US in unnecessary war there by ruining the economy, neglecting the welfare of the citizens among others. It is these shortcomings and others that his political opponents, the Democrats like Obama were using during the 2008’s presidential campaigns (Info please). George Walker Bush’s life is a life that has been full of activities.
He started being actively involved in politics quite early when he tried to vie for a seat in the House of Representatives but failed. After this he embarked on campaigning for his father during his presidential elections and after he won thereby became his political advisor. His career ended when he lost in his second term campaigns and this loss served as a wake up call to Bush who started focusing on his own life and started to pursue his political dreams.
He succeeded in becoming Texas’ governor for two terms and the president of US for two terms until his term was over in 2008 when handed over the presidency seat to a Democrat president, Barrack Obama. He is known for sustaining a hard fight against terrorism something that unfortunately compromised his popularity. Works Cited: Bush, George Walker and Adler, Andrews B. The Quotable George W. Bush: A Portrait in His Own Words.
McMeel Publishing, 2004. Bush, George Walker and Dietrich, John W. The George W. Bush Foreign Policy Reader: Presidential Speeches and Commentary. M. E. Sharpe, 2005 White House. George Walker Bush 2001-2009. Retrieved from http://www. whitehouse. gov/about/presidents/GeorgeWBush/ Info please. George Walker Bush. Pearson Education, Inc. 2007. Accessed from http://www. infoplease. com/ipa/A0878291. html Marquez, Heron. George Walker Bush. Twenty-First Century Books, 2001; 7
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