George W. Bush: From Texas to Ground Zero | 5-Minute Videos

No one alive on September 11, 2001 will ever forget the shock and horror of that day, most especially the man who was recently elected the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush. Was he prepared to meet the moment? Elizabeth Spalding, senior fellow at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, describes the path that brought him to that day.

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Transcript:
George W. Bush: From Texas to Ground Zero
Presented by Elizabeth Spalding

No one alive on September 11, 2001 will ever forget the shock and horror of that day.

The unthinkable happened: radical Islamic terrorists hijacked American airplanes and crashed them into buildings in New York and Washington, DC, murdering three thousand innocent people.

The attack shattered Americans’ sense of security.

Surely another assault was coming. But when? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?

The question preoccupied the nation’s commander-in-chief, the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush.

If he had anything to say about it, “the inevitable” would never happen.

George Walker Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1946. Although he came from a prominent New England and proud Republican family, his character was formed by his upbringing in Midland Texas, where his father and future U.S. President George H.W. Bush built a successful oil business.

A blue blood with a cowboy spirit, young George went to Yale and later Harvard Business School.

But instead of hitting the books, he hit the booze.

Not surprisingly, his grades suffered.

After graduating, he went into the Texas oil industry.

But unlike his father, he didn’t find oil.

He did, however, find love. In 1977, he married Laura Welch, also of Midland, Texas. Four years later, they had two children, twin daughters Barbara and Jenna. Bush loved his family. But when he turned 40, he realized he had a drinking problem and needed to make a big change. With the help of family friend, the renowned Reverend Billy Graham, Bush became, in his words, a believing Christian. He never took another drink.

He channeled his newfound energy into his father’s 1988 run for the presidency. Bush’s folksy, gregarious charm proved to be an asset on the campaign trail. If he didn’t have the family knack for finding oil, he did have the family knack for politics.

In 1992, his father lost his re-election to Democratic candidate Bill Clinton. Bush took it hard. But ironically, the defeat opened the door to his own political career.

With the help of gifted strategist Karl Rove, Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1994, taking on popular incumbent, Democrat Ann Richards. She refused to take him seriously. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Promising to cut taxes and reform the state’s education system, Bush won by a surprising margin, 54% to 46%.

He won again in 1998 by an even larger margin, making him the front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.

Bush campaigned as a “compassionate conservative,” seeking to unite the party’s moderate and conservative wings and, beyond that, to appeal to Independents in a divided country. Although he faced a strong challenge from Arizona Senator John McCain, Bush won the nomination, setting up a showdown with Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore in the general election.

Gore should have had the advantage, since he was an incumbent during a time of economic prosperity and peace. But his awkward, stiff personality turned off voters, while Bush’s easy-going manner resonated with the average American.

The election ended up being one of the most controversial in U.S. history. Bush assumed he had lost when the major television networks declared Florida for Gore. Without the Sunshine State, Bush had no path to victory. Then, in the middle of the night, the networks reversed themselves: Bush had won Florida and thus the election. Gore even called Bush to concede, only to retract his concession hours later.

Thirty-six days of recounts and lawsuits ensued. Throughout it all, Bush held onto his slim lead. In mid-December, the Supreme Court finally settled the contest in Bush’s favor.

With little foreign policy experience, Bush entered office with an agenda weighted toward domestic issues: cutting taxes, improving education, reforming Social Security, and adding a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens.

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