“Our health care system is the envy of the world.”
3rd Presidential Debate http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004d.html (October 13, 2004).
2000s, 2004
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. Bush was elected president in 2000 after a close and controversial win over Democratic rival Al Gore, becoming the fourth president to be elected while receiving fewer popular votes than his opponent.
From a prominent political family, he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, making him only the second president to assume the nation's highest office after his father, following the lead of John Quincy Adams. His brother, Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election. His paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a United States Senator from Connecticut.
The September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term as president. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine: launching a "War on Terror", an international military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War in 2003. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, Social Security reform, and amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. He signed into law broad tax cuts, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors, and funding for the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR. His tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture.
In the 2004 Presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another relatively close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and other challenges. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. In December 2007, the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession, often referred to as the "Great Recession", prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Nationally, Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular presidents in history, having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the September 11 attacks, as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis.
Bush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Dallas. In 2010, he published his memoir, Decision Points. His presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians' polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s.
“Our health care system is the envy of the world.”
3rd Presidential Debate http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004d.html (October 13, 2004).
2000s, 2004
2000s, 2004, Signing of Secure Fence Act of 2006
2010s, 2017, Speech at "Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In the World" event (2017)
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
2000s, 2004, Speech to United Nations General Assembly (September 2004)
2000s, 2001, Radio Address to the Nation (February 2001)
2000s, 2006, State of the Union (January 2006)
2000s, 2003, A Vision for Iraq and the Iraqi people (March 2003)
2000s, 2005, Second Inaugural Address (January 2005)
2000s, 2003, Hope and Conscience Will Not Be Silenced (July 2003)
2000s, 2003, Remarks after Columbia space shuttle disaster (February 2003)
Proclamation 7404 (February 2001)
2000s, 2001
2000s, 2001, Invasion of Afghanistan (October 2001)
In an interview with the Midland Reporter Telegram on 4 July 1989, quoted in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential (John Wiley and Sons, 2003) by James Moore and Wayne Slater, p. 161.
1980s
2000s, 2001, I Can Hear You, the Rest of the World Hears You (September 2001)
1990s, A Period of Consequences (September 1999)
Bush to supporters at an airport rally, October 27, 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6631109
2000s, 2004
“I believe in justice, not revenge.”
Interview with Matt Lauer http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/40073863#40074234 (2010), aired 8 November 2010.
2010s, 2010, Interview with Matt Lauer (November 2010)
Source: 2010s, 2010, Decision Points (November 2010), p. xii
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
Teasing Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten during a White House press conference, unaware that Wallsten suffers from Stargardt’s disease and is partly blind.
"Bush shows his sensitive side, telling blind journalist: 'I'm interested in the shade look'" http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1089264.ece, The Independent, June 16, 2006.
2000s, 2006
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
Narrating a humorous slide show at the Radio and Television News Correspondents Association, with a series of photos depicting himself searching through the Oval Office of the White House for the weapons of mass destruction which his administration had claimed to exist, but ultimately failed to find, in Iraq. http://www.wherearethewmd.org/evolutionary_rhetoric.php, March 25, 2004
2000s, 2004
2000s, 2005, Second Inaugural Address (January 2005)
more laughter
Online NewsHour http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec00/trans_12-18.htm interview, Washington, D.C., (December 18, 2000)' during his first trip to Washington as President-elect. The last sentence is also included in Fahrenheit 9/11.
2000s, 2000
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
The East Room of the White House, March 28, 2003 http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030328-6.html
2000s, 2003
1990s, A Distinctly American Internationalism (November 1999)
Source: 2010s, 2010, Decision Points (November 2010), p. 181
“I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that.”
speaking with the Sun on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6243858.stm(June 27, 2007)
2000s, 2007
2000s, 2003, Invasion of Iraq (March 2003)
“Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future.”
2000s, 2005, Address to the National Endowment for Democracy (October 2005)
2000s, 2003, Invasion of Iraq (March 2003)
Televised speech in India, March 3, 2006; According to one news report, "White House spokesman Scott McClellan later had to explain aboard Air Force One en route to Pakistan that Bush meant to say 'Muslim world' — uncomfortably noting that Pakistan is not an Arab nation."
"Bush's Pakistan visit not 'risk-free'" Chicago Tribune, March 3, 2006
2000s, 2006
2000s, 2002, Compassionate Conservatism (April 2002)
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
2000s, 2004, Speech to United Nations General Assembly (September 2004)
2000s, 2003, Remarks on U.S.-British relations and foreign policy (November 2003)
2000s, 2003
Source: October 1, 2003, Suntimes.com http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bush01.html (see also July 18, 2005)
Press conference http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=uKdbZWNqF00#President_George_W._Bush_Says__Bring__em_on_, discussing the then-incipient insurgency in Iraq; press conference, July 2, 2003.
2000s, 2003
During the Larry King-Karla Faye Tucker exchange, Tucker never actually asked to be spared.
1990s
Source: "Devil May Care" by Tucker Carlson, Talk Magazine, September 1999, p. 106.
“Lucky me, I hit the trifecta.”
In reference to his prior, oft-repeated promises to run a year-to-year budget surplus, except in the event of war, recession, or national emergency. Statement made to budget director Mitchell Daniels, mid-September; as quoted by him in an address to the OMB Conference Board (October 16, 2001) http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/pubpress/daniels_conference_board_speech10-16-01.html repeated as a dubious joke through 2002: at Robin Hayes for Congress and Elizabeth Dole for Senate luncheon, Charlotte NC, February 27; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020227-6.html at Latham for Congress Luncheon, DesMoines IA, March 1; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020301-6.html at Saxby Chambliss for Senate Dinner, Atlanta GA, March 27; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020327-10.html at Graham for Senate Luncheon, Greenville SC, March 27; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020327-5.html at Cornyn for Senate Luncheon, Dallas TX, March 29; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020328.html at Fisher for Governor Reception, Philadelphia PA, April 3; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020403-1.html at Leaders of the Fiscal Responsibility Coalition, Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg, April 16; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020416-8.html at Heather Wilson for Congress Luncheon, Albuquerque NM, April 29; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020429-4.html at Simon for Governor Luncheon, Santa Clara CA, May 1; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020501-2.html at Taft for Governor Luncheon, Columbus OH, May 10; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020510-3.html at 14th Annual World Pork Expo, DesMoines IA, June 7; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020607-4.html at 21st Century High Tech Forum, Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg, June 13; http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020613-11.html at Texans for Rick Perry, Houston TX, June 14. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020614-8.html
Quoted by Paul Krugman in "Hitting the Trifecta," The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/opinion/07KRUG.html
2000s, 2001
Radio Address (June 3, 2006); quoted in "Bush, senators renew fight against gay marriage" at CNN.com (June 5, 2006) http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/05/same.sex.marriage.ap/index.html
2000s, 2006
“The best ethics course is to handcuff one of the bastards.”
On Enron, meeting with his Corporate Responsibility Task Force, published by Wall Street Journal, and republished by Buffalo News https://archive.is/20130628093222/www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32611018_ITM and Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds By William S. Laufer http://books.google.com/books?id=RLwjP0ySmNcC&pg=PA263&sig=W1mDN3zZNfaEoqHM_5CM0EafB-E&dq=wall+street+journal+the-best-ethics-course-is-to-handcuff+%22September+27,+2002%22+%22See+John+R.+Wilke,+President+Praises+Work+of+Task+Force+on+Business+Crime,+Wall+Street+Journal,+September+27,+2002,+p.+%22. (July 12, 2002).
2000s, 2002
2000s, 2001, Black Music (June 2001)
2010s, 2017, Speech at "Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In the World" event (2017)
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
2000s, 2003, Remarks on U.S.-British relations and foreign policy (November 2003)
Interview with the Associated Press (18 January 2001)
2000s, 2001
Press conference http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011011-7.html (11 October 2001).
2000s, 2001