The formative years and the debut in politics

The eldest of the six children of George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States (1989-93) and Barbara Pierce Bush, George Walker Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1946; his grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a Connecticut senator (1952-63). Moving his family to Texas in 1948, young Bush grew up in Midland and Houston. He attended primary school in Midland and completed secondary education at Phillips Academy, the boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, attended by his father at the time and before that by his grandfather. He also followed the family traditions for the university, enrolling in Yale, where in 1968 he obtained a degree in history. He then enrolled in a pilot training course at the Air Force Section of the Texas National Guard; transferred to the Reserve in 1973, the following year, at the end of the six years of compulsory service, he was definitively discharged. In 1973 he entered Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA (Master in Business Administration). Returning to Midland in 1975, he began his business as an entrepreneur in the oil sector, first working for a family friend and then starting his own company, the Arbusto Energy Company, to which he devoted himself completely after failing his first attempt in 1978. to enter politics, running for Congress.

That first campaign was also attended by Laura Welch, a teacher and librarian whom Bush married in November 1977. The marriage had a profound stabilizing influence on his life. The future president left the Episcopal Church, in which he had been educated, to join the United Methodist Church to which his wife belonged. To Laura’s influence and the religious awakening that resulted in a strengthening of his Christian faith, Bush would later attribute his release from alcohol addiction, which had previously created problems for him.

In 1986, at the time of the oil price crash, Bush sold his oil exploration and mining company to Harken Energy Corporation, from which he obtained a consulting position and a seat on the board of directors. Liquidated the company, in 1988 he moved with his family to Washington to devote himself full time to the election campaign for the presidency of the United States of his father, in which he had the role of adviser and speechwriter and kept relations with the press, traveling around all over the country.

Governor of Texas

Returning to Texas after George Sr.’s electoral success, George W. resumed economic activities in a new sector: in Dallas, at the head of a group of investors he organized together with a former business partner, he bought the professional team. Rangers baseball team. His qualification as a manager and the participation with which he followed the activities of the team for years gave him wide visibility in the media and the reputation of a successful businessman: when in 1998 he sold his share, from the 800,000 dollars of the initial investment this it had reached the value of 15 million.

Building on his popularity, in 1994 he advanced his candidacy for governor of the state, challenging the incumbent governor, the Democrat Ann Richards. For the electoral campaign he relied on Karl Rove, a central figure in the staff who had led his father’s presidential election; he concentrated his program essentially on four points: welfare reform, education, increased penalties for young offenders, reform of damage in civil cases. She won by getting 53% of the vote against Richards’ 46%.

Concerned about the high rate of illiteracy among young Texans, he made education a priority in his tenure as governor, increasing public spending on elementary and middle schools and tying teacher salary and career improvements to achievement. He reformed the welfare system, proposing time limits on the enjoyment of subsidies, and encouraged the work of religiously-led institutions alongside state agencies in the field of combating drug and alcohol abuse. In 1998 he was reconfirmed with about 70% of the votes, the first Texas governor to be re-elected twice for a four-year term (until 1972 in Texas the governor remained in office for two years).

Towards the presidency

Already during the first mandate, there was talk of Bush as a possible candidate in the presidential elections; the announcement was made in June 1999 and Bush had to deal with numerous Republicans in the running for the nomination, among which was especially fearful John McCain, the future antagonist of Obama in 2008.

a strengthening of the public school and defense, within the framework of a moral appeal with a strong religious imprint that assigned a central role to local communities and families. To run to his side, Bush called an old family friend with consolidated political experience, Dick Cheney, formerly on the staff of President Gerald Ford and secretary of defense in the presidency of Bush Sr.

The initial large advantage recorded by Bush in the first polls gradually diminished as the electoral campaign proceeded, to the point of recording the smallest gap in the previous forty years. In this situation the response of the polls raised a serious problem, since the majority of the votes ended up depending on the 25 electoral votes of Florida, the results of which were immediately contested. Weeks of uncertainty followed, of appeals, complaints and contradictory sentences: a judicial battle in which, in addition to the two parties, the Supreme Court of Florida and the federal one were involved. The decision of the latter, with 5 votes out of 9, not to carry out a manual verification of the contested votes, demanded by Democrats who accused the automatic counting system of insufficient reliability, but which could not be concluded by December 18, the deadline for the proclamation of the electors, led Gore to publicly declare his electoral defeat in Florida, and therefore at the national level. Bush therefore won very narrowly, by 271 electoral votes against 266, only one more than the 270 requested (one of Gore’s voters abstained). The results of the popular vote, however, indicated that Gore had obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, against 47.9% of Bush. The latter thus became the first candidate to have the majority of electoral votes in the face of a defeat in the national popular vote. deadline for the proclamation of the great voters, led Gore to publicly declare his electoral defeat in Florida, and therefore on a national level. Bush therefore won very narrowly, by 271 electoral votes against 266, only one more than the 270 requested (one of Gore’s voters abstained). The results of the popular vote, however, indicated that Gore had obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, against 47.9% of Bush. The latter thus became the first candidate to have the majority of electoral votes in the face of a defeat in the national popular vote. deadline for the proclamation of the great voters, led Gore to publicly declare his electoral defeat in Florida, and therefore on a national level. Bush therefore won very narrowly, by 271 electoral votes against 266, only one more than the 270 requested (one of Gore’s voters abstained). The results of the popular vote, however, indicated that Gore had obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, against 47.9% of Bush. The latter thus became the first candidate to have the majority of electoral votes in the face of a defeat in the national popular vote. only one more than the 270 requested (one of Gore’s voters abstained). The results of the popular vote, however, indicated that Gore had obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, against 47.9% of Bush. The latter thus became the first candidate to have the majority of electoral votes in the face of a defeat in the national popular vote. only one more than the 270 requested (one of Gore’s voters abstained). The results of the popular vote, however, indicated that Gore had obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, against 47.9% of Bush. The latter thus became the first candidate to have the majority of electoral votes in the face of a defeat in the national popular vote.

The consultations for the Senate registered an increase in the number of Democrats, who obtained 50 seats on a par with the Republicans, who however retained the majority in the House; the passage of a Republican senator on the list of Independents, in May 2001, assured the Democrats a majority in the Senate.