George W. Bush

George W. Bush was the 43rd president. He served two terms, from January 2001 to January 2009. He was a Republican from Texas and had been that state's governor; the family ranch at Crawford became a famous working getaway. People called him Dubya — the Texas way of saying the middle initial W, which separated him from his father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st president. In 2000 Al Gore won the national popular vote, but Florida's electors decided the Electoral College. The Supreme Court stopped Florida's recount, and Bush became president. He is only the second son of a president to become president, after John Quincy Adams. His vice president was Dick Cheney.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes. Nearly 3,000 people died. Planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back. Bush told the country the job was to defend the United States and hunt the terrorists who had struck. A new Cabinet department — the Department of Homeland Security — was created after the attacks. The United States first sent troops to Afghanistan, against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Taliban had sheltered Osama bin Laden. In 2003 a U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. The main public reason was weapons of mass destruction; those stockpiles were not found. The intelligence was wrong.

At home Bush signed tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. No Child Left Behind was a 2002 education law about school testing and accountability. Medicare Part D added help for seniors paying for prescription drugs. Near the end of his presidency a 2008 housing and bank crash hit; TARP was a huge emergency program to stop a collapse. After he left office he took up a quiet hobby: painting portraits of wounded veterans.