Bush, George W George H W Bush and King Fahd (seated, right) meet in the Royal Pavilion in Saudi Arabia to discuss the situation in Iraq in 1990 In the 1992 election Bush lost to Governor Bill Clinton, an election notable for the involvement of Texas billionaire and third-party candidate Ross Perot, who won nearly a fifth of the popular vote despite frequent decisions not to run Key to Bush’s loss were the recession, the perception that he was out of touch with the common man (particularly when compared with the genial Clinton), and the desire for change to reflect a new state of affairs in the wake of the cold war Further reading: Duffy, Michael, and Dan Goodgame Marching In Place: The Status Quo Presidency of George Bush New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992; Green, John Robert The Presidency of George Bush Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2000; Kelley, Kitty The Family: The True Story of the Bush Dynasty Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 2004; Smith, Jean Edward George Bush’s War New York: Henry Holt, 1992 Bill Kte’pi Bush, George W (1946– ) U.S president George Walker Bush was the 43rd president of the United States, elected in 2000 and serving from 2001 to 2008 His presidency began and remained in controversy, from the issues surrounding the 2000 election to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 75 The oldest son of President George H W Bush, Bush was raised in Texas where his father had moved to start his Zapata Oil corporation, and like other men in his family, attended Yale University where he earned a degree in history and was a member of the Skull and Bones society While his father and grandfather had served in the navy during wartime, he served in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War Bush has described this period of his life as irresponsible and informed by bad choices, characterized by excessive drinking After a failed congressional bid, he spent most of the 1980s working in the oil industry before purchasing a share of the Texas Rangers baseball team, of which he served as general manager from 1989 to 1994 He ran for governor of Texas in 1994, the same year his younger brother Jeb ran for governor of Florida; Jeb lost, but was elected in 1998, the same year George won his reelection by a landslide As governor of Texas, Bush was a noted conservative State executions rose to higher levels than any other state in modern American history, and the line between church and state was worn thin when Bush declared June 10, 2000, to be “Jesus Day,” a state holiday in memory of Jesus and encouraging reaching out to those in need At the time, Bush was running for president; in an early debate preceding the Republican primaries, he named Jesus (identifying him only by the religious title “Christ”) as the political philosopher he most identified with He won the Republican nomination, picking Dick Cheney—his father’s secretary of defense—as his running mate Voting irregularities in Florida, where Jeb was still governor, made it difficult to determine whether Bush or Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, had won the state, and the electoral vote in the rest of the country was close enough that the Florida votes would be the tiebreakers Less than one-tenth of percent separated the two candidates, requiring a series of recounts both by hand and machine, and precipitating a national controversy over reports of vote tampering, problematic ballot designs and the handling of overseas ballots, and the coincidence of a Bush governing the state The U.S Supreme Court finally ruled that with no time remaining to require a thorough and uniform recount, the state’s then-official count—in favor of Bush—would be upheld Gore conceded the election rather than fight the matter further More than any other president in recent memory, even in light of Ronald Reagan’s cold war rhetoric and its resemblance to “fire and brimstone” sermons, Bush has worn his faith on his sleeve, making frequent reference to God and Christian matters in his speeches After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Bush