User:Simetrical/Slow page with no history
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Bush was first elected in the 2000 presidential election, and reelected for a second term in the 2004 presidential election. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, and is the eldest son of former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush.
George Walker Bush | |
---|---|
43rd President of the United States | |
Assumed office January 20 2001 | |
Vice President | Dick Cheney |
Preceded by | Bill Clinton |
Succeeded by | Incumbent |
46th Governor of Texas | |
In office January 17 1995 – December 21 2000 | |
Lieutenant | Bob Bullock (1995–1999) Rick Perry (1999–2000) |
Preceded by | Ann Richards |
Succeeded by | Rick Perry |
Personal details | |
Born | (1946-07-06) July 6, 1946 (age 77) New Haven, Connecticut |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Laura Bush |
Residence | Crawford, Texas |
Alma mater | Yale University Harvard Business School |
Occupation | Businessman (oil, baseball) |
Signature | |
Following college, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses before making an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before returning to politics in a campaign for Governor of Texas. He defeated Ann Richards and was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. Bush won the presidency in 2000 as the Republican candidate in a close and controversial contest, in which he lost the nationwide popular vote, but won the electoral vote.
As president, Bush signed into law a $1.35 trillion tax cut program in 2001,[1] and in 2002 the No Child Left Behind Act. In October 2001, after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush announced a global War on Terrorism and ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy Al-Qaeda, and to capture Osama bin Laden. In March 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 and that the war was necessary for the protection of the United States.[2][3]
Running as a self-described "war president" in the midst of the Iraq War,[4] Bush was re-elected on November 2, 2004;[5] his presidential campaign against Senator John Kerry was successful despite controversy over Bush's prosecution of the Iraq War and domestic issues.[6][7] After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism. His domestic approval has declined from 90 percent (the highest ever recorded by The Gallup Organization) immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks to a low of 24 percent, [8] the lowest level for any sitting president in 35 years.[9]