George Bush

Article Outline

Introduction; Early Life; Early Career; Governor of Texas; Presidential Campaign and Election; President of the United States

Reevaluating the War on Terrorism

Criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism came in March 2004 when its former counterterrorism coordinator, Richard Clarke, testified before the bipartisan, independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks. Clarke maintained that the Bush administration gave low priority to warnings about a terrorist threat from al-Qaeda, failing to heed his call for a high-level meeting until a week before the attacks occurred. Clarke charged that the U.S. invasion of Iraq played into the hands of al-Qaeda, which had been telling Muslims that the United States intended to occupy an oil-rich Middle Eastern country.

The Bush administration vigorously countered Clarke’s charges, saying he lacked credibility because he had earlier praised the administration for its antiterrorism efforts. Republican senator Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, said Clarke was merely promoting a book he had written.

In July 2004 the commission issued its final report and found that neither the administration of President Bill Clinton nor the Bush administration, prior to September 11, had made terrorism an “overriding national security concern.” The commission said the biggest failure of U.S. leadership was in understanding the gravity of the threat from al-Qaeda. The commission issued a number of recommendations to improve U.S. counterterrorist efforts, including the creation of a national counterterrorism center and a Cabinet-level post of national intelligence director to oversee the foreign and domestic activity of the various intelligence agencies. In August Bush said he would urge Congress to adopt those recommendations, although the post of national intelligence director would not be a Cabinet position.

The Reelection Campaign of 2004

Bush ran unopposed for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination and officially secured the nomination on September 2 at the party’s convention in New York City. The Bush campaign immediately went on the attack against Democratic opponent John F. Kerry, portraying the senator as a flip-flopper in a television ad that used video clips from a Kerry campaign appearance. The ads showed Kerry saying that he had actually voted for an appropriations bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before deciding to vote against it. Strategists for the Bush campaign later gave much of the credit for the Bush victory to the effectiveness of this ad.

Bush’s Second Term

Election Results

On Election Day, Bush soundly defeated Kerry and was elected to a second term. Unlike 2000, when he lost the popular vote to Gore, Bush won the popular vote in 2004, increasing his vote tally by more than 3.5 million. Bush won more than 60 million votes or 51 percent of the total cast in the largest turnout in a presidential contest since 1968. Bush won the decisive electoral college vote by carrying 31 states, including the South and nearly all of the Great Plains states, and claiming 285 electoral votes. Nevertheless, it was not an overwhelming victory compared with previous Republican presidential wins. Ronald Reagan’s margin of victory in the 1984 election was 512 electoral votes and an 18 percentage point spread in the popular vote, while Richard Nixon in 1972 had a 503 electoral vote lead and a 23 percentage point lead in the popular vote.

Bush increased his support among a variety of demographic groups normally identified with the Democratic Party, such as Hispanic Americans and senior citizens. He won 48 percent of the women’s vote, a 5 percentage point gain from 2000. Bush retained his loyalty among male voters, winning 55 percent of the male vote and 62 percent of the white male vote. Bush’s campaign strategist, Karl Rove, said Bush won 81 percent of the nation’s 3,141 counties, underscoring his popularity in rural, suburban, and exurban areas. Bush won 56 percent of the vote among households earning more than $50,000 annually and 63 percent of the vote among households earning more than $200,000 a year.

On the issues, 22 percent of voters interviewed in the national exit pool— a survey conducted after people voted—said the issue that mattered the most for them was “moral values,” followed by the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent), and Iraq (15 percent). However, another poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, which phrased its questions in an open-ended way rather than asking people to choose from a predetermined list, found that Iraq was the top issue (27 percent), followed by the economy (14 percent), terrorism (9 percent), and moral values (9 percent).

Some political analysts believed that antigay marriage initiatives in 11 states increased the conservative turnout for Bush and explained why so many voters cited “moral values” as the most important issue (see Gay Rights Movement). Other analysts said the decisive issue was terrorism, noting that 49 percent of voters said they trusted Bush to fight terrorism while only 31 percent trusted Kerry. For voters who thought terrorism was the most important issue, 86 percent voted for Bush. About 55 percent of voters also agreed with Bush’s argument that the war in Iraq was part of the war against terrorism.

Bush became the first incumbent president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win reelection while his party also increased its majorities in both houses of Congress. He became the first Republican president since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 to win reelection with Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

Domestic Issues

With control of Congress and with a popular mandate seemingly behind him, Bush quickly outlined an ambitious legislative program for his second term. He announced that his first priority would be to reform social security by reducing the amount taken from payroll taxes and enabling younger workers to reinvest that money in private accounts that could yield greater returns. Bush also called for simplifying the tax code.

Bush reshaped his Cabinet in his second term. Immediately after the election Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his plans to retire. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace him. Other resignations included Attorney General John Ashcroft, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, and Homeland Security head Tom Ridge. With the exception of Powell, who was known to be at odds with Bush over his handling of Iraq, none of the resignations reflected policy differences with Bush. After Ashcroft’s resignation, Bush nominated his longtime friend and White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, to replace him. Gonzales became the first Hispanic American attorney general of the United States.

In his inaugural address to the nation in January 2005, Bush said that “it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture.” He added that “my most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people from further attacks and emerging threats.” Some political observers believed that Bush was attempting to blunt, at the outset of his second term as president, any broadening resistance around the nation to the ongoing U.S. military efforts in Iraq.

In early February 2005 his State of the Union address outlined specific aspects of his domestic policy. Bush said it was necessary to restructure the tax system and the social security system, which he said was headed “to bankruptcy.” Bush's recommendations for overhauling social security included the possible creation of so-called “personal accounts” in which workers would be permitted to invest their payroll taxes in the stock market. That plan proved to be one of the most controversial, and ultimately unsuccessful, domestic initiatives in either of his two terms as president. It was almost immediately attacked by many of his Democratic foes and by some Republicans normally prone to supporting the president. As Bush traveled around the country to drum up support for the plan, polls showed a largely negative public reaction.

Bush also urged lawmakers to pass his energy proposals, including opening up areas of the American wilderness, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil exploration and development. Extending on themes he had introduced in his inaugural address, Bush also talked specifically about the conflict in Iraq, saying that the United States needed to stay the course in that country. As well, he suggested that Syria and Iran were countries that continued to either support or sponsor terrorists.

Immediately on the heels of his State of the Union address, Bush announced a $2.57-trillion federal budget that included some of the biggest cuts in domestic spending in the last 20 years. The deeper cuts for domestic programs, including ones aimed at Medicaid, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were assailed by Democrats and other Bush administration critics. In particular, Bush critics noted that the budget included increases for the military while cutting programs to aid police departments and children from low-income households. Bush supporters inside and outside the White House said the new budget balanced U.S. security needs with a strong sense of fiscal responsibility. They added that the budget was designed to ultimately steer the nation toward Bush's goal of drastically reducing the national deficit.

As Bush openly pushed his domestic proposals, including his desire to overhaul social security, increasing attention centered on a possible opening on the Supreme Court of the United States. When Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced plans to retire from the highest court in the land, Bush was faced with the opportunity to name the first new Supreme Court justice since 1994. After much speculation about his choice, including some thought that he would name Attorney General Gonzales, he nominated federal appellate judge John G. Roberts, Jr., in July. Following the September 2005 death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Bush asked that Roberts’s nomination be expedited and that he be named the new chief justice.

As the Roberts nomination was being reviewed in August 2005, Bush faced one of the most serious challenges of his presidency. Hurricane Katrina, one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history, devastated enormous portions of the Gulf Coast region. The large loss of life, the billions of dollars in damage, and television coverage showing tens of thousands of stranded flood refugees in New Orleans led to stiff accusations from Bush critics. They alleged that the president had not put the right people in charge of the hurricane response team and that the federal government had responded either too slowly or too ineffectively. Bush made several visits to the hurricane zone, as did other key members of his administration. Accepting responsibility, he vowed to provide the resources necessary to aid and rebuild the ravaged region. Following widespread criticism, Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown was eventually replaced. Bush quickly signed a bill that provided billions in aid to the Gulf Coast areas hit by the hurricane.

In October, in the wake of Roberts successfully becoming the new chief justice of the Supreme Court, Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the seat to be vacated by O’Connor. Miers, unlike Roberts, was immediately met with strong resistance. Critics, including many conservative Republicans, said that Bush had selected someone on the basis of friendship and that Miers had no lengthy track record that would outline her judicial experience and philosophy. At the end of October, amid growing opposition, Miers asked Bush to withdraw her nomination. In early November, in what some political observers said was an attempt to rally his conservative base, Bush nominated federal appellate justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to the Supreme Court vacancy. That nomination came as some political polls showed Bush’s approval ratings slipping to lows of about 40 percent from previous highs of more than 60 percent. The year ended with some of the key proposals outlined by Bush in his 2005 State of the Union address, notably his attempts to push for tax code and social security restructuring, having gone unapproved.

In January 2006 Alito’s nomination was approved by the Senate. Analysts said that Bush’s ability to name two conservatives to the Supreme Court, and possibly a third before his term expired, might represent his most important legacy. As the year began, Bush was also looking for ways to further stimulate the U.S. economy, which showed signs of health in January with the lowest unemployment rate since July 2001.

In his January 2006 State of the Union address, Bush put forward a limited, modest agenda. Saying the country was “addicted to oil,” he called for reducing Middle East oil imports by 75 percent by 2025 by developing ethanol and other alternative fuels. He called attention to increasing competition in high-tech fields from China and India and urged greater financing for basic science research and for recruiting 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in the nation’s schools. Bush also defended a previously secret electronic eavesdropping program that critics said broke the law by avoiding judicial review. Bush defended the program, saying it was an effective tool against terrorism and that it was constitutional under his authority as commander in chief. See also Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Electronic Surveillance.

In June 2006 Bush established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, which became the world’s largest marine conservation area. The new national monument encompasses nearly 362,600 sq km (140,000 sq mi) of tropical ocean with coral reefs and uninhabited islands, and is home to thousands of species, including the endangered monk seal. The move was widely applauded by conservationists and environmentalists, who often have been critics of Bush administration policies.

On July 19, 2006, Bush cast the first veto of his presidency, rejecting congressional legislation that would have lifted some of the limits on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Bush cited moral grounds for his opposition to the bill. However, polls showed that a majority of Americans supported the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research. Some Republicans in Congress broke with Bush on the issue, including former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator John McCain, who both voted for the vetoed legislation.

Midterm Elections

President Bush characterized the 2006 midterm elections as a “thumping” for the Republican Party. The Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress and a majority of state houses. Bush said he took some responsibility for the defeat, and he accepted the resignation of his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, the day after the elections. Polls showed that the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq was a major issue for voters, a majority of whom, according to several polls, clearly disapproved of Bush’s handling of the war. As the chief Iraq war planner, Rumsfeld had been a lightning rod for criticism, particularly from retired generals and other sources close to the U.S. military. Bush appointed former CIA director Robert M. Gates as Rumsfeld’s replacement.

As a lame-duck president facing a Democratic majority in Congress, Bush was conciliatory in his first meeting with House and Senate leaders, promising “to find common ground” on the Iraq war and domestic issues. With a Democratic majority in the Senate, Bush was expected to have to moderate some of his political and judicial appointments. In January 2007 Bush withdrew five nominations for federal judgeships in the face of opposition from the Democrats. Among the nominees was William Haynes, who drew criticism as a Defense Department attorney for memos that established a legal framework for harsh interrogations of suspected terrorist detainees. See also Abu Ghraib Scandal; Guantánamo Bay; Torture.

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Reevaluating the War on Terrorism

The Reelection Campaign of 2004

Bush’s Second Term

Election Results

Domestic Issues

Midterm Elections