President Bush wins second term

Asian Political News, Nov 8, 2004

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 Kyodo

Known for his charm and charisma, George W. Bush took his seat in the Oval Office in 2001, at a time of peace and prosperity, and his agenda reflected that.

Focusing squarely on domestic issues, education reforms and tax cuts topped his legislative wish list. And he famously took a month-long vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch in the summer of 2001.

Four years later he is a president who has led the United States through the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, started two wars, run up the deficit and national debt to record levels, and pushed an aggressive conservative agenda.

Elected in the 2000 election without a majority of the popular vote and under a controversial decision by the Supreme Court which threw the Electoral College in his favor, Bush has nevertheless shied away from moving to more moderate policies.

Widely considered to be one of the most conservative presidents in recent history, Bush signed tax cuts in excess of $1.35 billion, established national testing standards in schools, and has supported a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

With the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Bush and the American people were forced to shift their focus to foreign affairs.

Within months of the attacks, Bush launched a war in Afghanistan.

While Bush gained great popularity within the United States for his strong response to the terror attacks, his policy of preemptive military action has proven extremely unpopular in the rest of the world. Even within the United States his invasion of Iraq in 2003 was divisive.

Predicated on eliminating stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and the perceived connection between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terrorist network, the war split American public opinion when it became clear there were neither stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction nor a link to al-Qaida.

Bush's foreign policy has not just involved his self-described war on terror. His aversion to the entanglements of foreign agreements became apparent as soon as he took office. Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush had pulled out of the Kyodo Protocol and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and spun U.S. policy 180 degrees by disengaging from North Korea.

Efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula led the Bush administration to join the six-party framework, which brought China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States to the negotiating table.

A Texas governor until he was elected president in 2000, Bush was born in 1946 in Connecticut. At the age of 2, his family moved to Texas to start an oil business. His father, former President George Bush, soon became successful as an oil man.

George W. Bush, at 15, left home and was enrolled in an elite prep school on the East Coast. Like his father and grandfather, he then went on to Yale University.

Upon his graduation in 1968, Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard, a decision that spared him from being sent to Vietnam.

In 1973, Bush entered Harvard University to pursue a master's degree in business administration. Upon graduation, he went home to Texas to engage in a booming oil business.

In the 1970s, the senior Bush was given a number of presidential appointments - ambassador to China, ambassador to the United Nations and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

During those years, George W. Bush's life was more focused on drinking, dating and playing golf than on politics.

In the mid-1980s, Bush's oil business went bust twice.

On his 40th birthday, Bush told a group of friends who attended the party, ''I just don't think I'll drink anymore.'' A little later, he also quit smoking and turned to the Bible.

Bush won the governor's post in November 1994.

Bush married his wife Laura in 1977. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who graduated from university this year.