Transcript Bush 2 Administrationx


Early Life/Political Career
 George Walker Bush was born in New Haven,
Connecticut on July 6, 1946, the first child of George
H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush
 Bush attended Yale University and later Harvard
Business School where he characterized himself as
an average student
 After graduation Bush entered the oil business in
Texas and at one point was the co-owner of the
Texas Rangers before becoming the Governor of
Texas in 1994

Candidates
 Democrats
 Al Gore (Vice-President)
 Joe Lieberman (Senator of Connecticut)


Republicans
 George Bush (Governor of Texas)
 Dick Cheney (Former Congressman from
Wyoming, Secretary of Defense under George
Bush Sr.)

Popular Vote
 Bush/Cheney 47.9%
 Gore/Lieberman 48.4%

States Carried
 Bush/Cheney 30
 Gore/Lieberman 20 Plus DC

Final Results
 The result of the election hinged on the outcome in Florida
which had 25 electoral votes
 The news networks initially projected Gore to be the early
winner based on the exit polls
 As the night proceeded they shifted their projections to
Bush as the winner
 By the end of the night, it was too close to call and the state
would not officially be decided until December 9, a little
over a month later
 In a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision, the court
ruled that the previously ordered state wide hand recount
would stop and the machine recount would be used
 The final tally determined that Bush had won Florida by 537
votes

9/11
 Less than a year into his presidency, terrorist attacks in New
York, Washington, DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania would
completely change the course of his presidency
 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda
hijacked four passenger jets
 The hijackers intentionally piloted two of those planes into
the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New
York City
 Both towers collapsed within two hours
 The hijackers also intentionally crashed a jet into the
Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia just outside of Washington,
DC
 A fourth hijacked jet was headed to a target in Washington,
DC, but the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania after its passengers attempted to take control
of the jet from the hijackers

9/11 Continued…
 Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks including the 227
civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes, none of
whom survived
 The leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who had initially
denied involvement, claimed responsibility for the attacks
 Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the
presence of U.S. troops in the Middle East, and the economic
sanctions placed on Iraq following the first Gulf War as their
justification for the attacks
 Bin Laden said that the attacks were carried out because, "we
are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you
undermine our security we undermine yours."
 The United States responded to the attacks by launching the
War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to topple the Taliban,
which had supported and protected al-Qaeda and Bin Laden in
Afghanistan

War on Terror
 After the September 11 attacks, Bush launched the War
on Terror, in which the United States military and an
international coalition invaded Afghanistan
 In 2003, Bush launched the invasion of Iraq, which he
described as being part of the War on Terrorism in
accordance with what became known as the “Bush
Doctrine”
 The Bush Doctrine created a new American foreign policy
of preventive war, which held that the United States
should depose foreign regimes that represented a
potential or perceived threat to the security of the United
States
 The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq led to the toppling
of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the removal of
Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq
 Post Presidency/Legacy
Bush's popularity was highly variable during his
two terms
 He began his presidency with approval ratings
near 50%
 After the September 11 attacks, Bush gained an
approval rating of 90%
 It remained over 50% during most of his first
term
 This led to his re-election in 2004 when he
defeated John Kerry (Senator – Massachusetts)

 Post Presidency/Legacy



Continued…
By April 2008, during the end of Bush’s second term,
his disapproval ratings were the highest ever recorded
in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll for any
president, with 69% of those polled disapproving of
the job Bush was doing as president
Bush left the White House as one of the most
unpopular American presidents, second in
unpopularity only to Richard Nixon
A 2010 Siena College Poll of 238 Presidential scholars
found that Bush was ranked 39th out of 43, with poor
ratings in handling of the economy, communication,
ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments
and intelligence