What Does it Take to be a Great President?

 By: Claudia Celovsky, Mary Hemmeter, and Ben Liu

George HW Bush

 

 

 

Where I Live(ed):

Greenwich, CT

 

About Me:

I grew up in Connecticut. I met my lovely wife at the tender age of 17, she was 16 ;)

We had six children. My favorite was named after me, George! He's not that bright, but he

shares my name! I am proud card-carrying member of the Republican party.

But some things I did that were pretty cool are

• Ending the Cold War
• Starting the Gulf War
• Defeated Dukakis in the elections! [Take that liberals!]

 

Date of Birth:

June 12, 1924 in Milton Massachusetts

 

Sex:

Male

 

Political Views:

Republican.  For the most part...

 

Religious Views:

Protestant, Methodist

 

Years Served as President:

1989-1993

Status:

Married

Children:

George Walker (born 1946), Pauline Robinson (1949), John Ellis "Jeb" (1955), Neil Mallon (1955), Marvin, Dorothy Bush Koch (1959)

Looking for:

friendship, networking

Occupations:

I was a congress man and an ambassador of the U.N. and China. Plus, I was head of the CIA as well as

Ronald Reagan's VP. 'Course, I took over after he left, so I was president.

 

Interests/Hobbies:

• Military and Navy
• Showing Russia who is boss
• Oil business relations
• Journalism
• Politics
• LOL'ing with Dan Quayle

 

Education:

• Graduated from Yale! I'm a smartie ;)

 

Favorite Books:

Omnipotent Government, Sherlock Holmes, The Keys of the Kingdom, Pride's Castle, War and Peace, Catcher In The Rye, Gentlemen's Agreement

 

Favorite Movies:

 Casablanca, Double Indemnity, It's a Wonderful Life, The Third Man

 

Favorite Music:

Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar)-Andrews Sisters

This Land is Your Land- Woody Guthrie

White Christmas- Bing Crosby

 

Friends:

• Ronald Reagan
• Dan Quayle
• Dick Cheney
• Colin Powell
• Robert M. Gates
• James A. Baker III
• Lawrence S. Eagleburger
• William H. Webster
• Dick Thornburgh
• William K. Reilly

 

Sports:

• Speedboating
• Fishing
• Golfing
• Tennis
• Pitching horseshoes
• Hunting

 

During my stint as president, the political, social and economic factors and challenges that I had to deal with (at home) included:

 

Political

• By the time I was president the environment was in terrible shape, so I really wanted to take action.  I passed the Clean Air Act which helped our atmosphere.
• Facing up to the Republicans' allegations that I was too liberal was very challenging.  I had to please the needs of all domestic parties.
• I had to face bad approval ratings, anbd only got one term :[  But I got revenge with my son...

 

Social

• I increased welfare despite Republicans protest.  Of course, society was happy about this new increase in welfare.

• Passed Americans with Disabilities Act which was one of my most prominent civil rights legislations of my presidency.

• Unemployment was rising rapidly, and I had to make the right decisions

 

Economic

• Huge deficit had to be curbed for America to continue being a world leader
• Democrats wanted taxes to be raised, so I consented, but then the Republicans did not agree. There was major conflict that I had to deal with.  In the end, the taxes were actually beneficial. 
• I was able to reduce interest and inflation rates to their lowest in years. 

 

 

During my stint as president, the political, social and economic factors and challenges that I had to deal with (abroad) included:

 

Political

• I had to deal with all the conflict involving the Persian Gulf War and make decisions to protect American economic interests in Kuwait, especially oil interests.
• I had to kick that guy Manuel Noriega out of Panama, after he spied for Castro and sent all kindsa bad stuff heading our way. I’m talkin’ ‘bout coke, man. An’ smack. All them crazy narcotics.  I had to deal with the whole drug war that put our country in a national high.
• I met with the Soviets after people had been bugging the U.S. president about that for years. That was a main step towards ending the Cold War. Also, I didn’t gloat after we beat them. Man, that was hard!

 

Social

• I provided aid to ex-U.S.S.R. nations like Latvia and Lithuania, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to hasten economic reforms and speed along the democratic process and all that jazz.

• I had to choose whether to ignore the opressive communist China, including the “Iananmen-Tay Are-Squay” (the event that must-not-be-named), because we didn’t want them to stop trading with us, did we?

 

Economic

• NAFTA, baby. The North American Free Trade Agreement. Times were hard economically, and this is what I made to help us out.  I wanted to stimulate trade among us big North American nations, like the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Too bad I forgot to include labor regulations!
• Halted business transactions with Panama while trying to boot Noriega out of Panama. It worked, too

 

Looking back at my presidential career, I had to wear several "hats."  Wearing these different "hats," these were my most significant achievements and failures:

 

Commander-in-Chief

Positive: Keeping my cool through the fighting with Iraq, and overcoming criticism that I wasn't doing enough. Operation Desert Storm?  Hello people!! That was an amazing success, if I don't say so myself.

Negative: I was accused of leaving American soldiers in Vietnam, incarcerating them.  But it's not true!

Chief Executive

Positive:  Handled money set aside for acts such as the one that helped the environment and one that helped disabled people very well.

Negative:  Instead of using 27 million dollars that Congress had set aside for aid for the Contras in Nicaragua, I spent the money on weapons for them.  Oops.

Chief Diplomat

Positive:  Able to end war with Iraq, doing it by speaking peacefully to leader and by using our army. 

Negative: Wasn't very good at negotiating with Congress, our relationship was quite rocky.  I failed at cooperating with them on certain issues.

Ceremonial Head of State

Positive: Used my abilities as Head of State to lower taxes and

Negative:  Used my abilities to attempt a stop to drug use, but failed.  By the end of my administration, the drug war had acctually heightened. 

Manager of the Economy

Positive: Overcame the crash of Savings and Loans Association.  Also, I dealt with interest rates, being able to give the American people their neccessary loans.

Negative:  I admit to not being very communicative and open about our economy.  America got wrong impressions about recession and growth in our economy when I was president.

Party Leader

Positive: Represented my main man Ronald Reagan!  He was a strong Republican, and I supported his views with pride. 

Negative:  Had to disagree with my own party in the topic of taxes.  Republicans wanted to decrease taxes, but I went with the Democrats and imposed higher taxes. 

National Leader

Positive: When I signed a piece of civil rights legislation known as the ADA.  This helped out 50 million disabled people in the U.S.

Negative:  Was going to raise a law making abortion illegal.  Was overruled :[

 

Favorite Quote About Me by Me:

"Read my lips: no new taxes."~George HW Bush

 

 

Positive Political Cartoon

Those jerks can't show me in a positive light! So I drew my own picture~

 

Negative Political Cartoon

 

Works Cited:

 

Cooke, Jacob E. "Washington, George." Presidents: A Reference History. Ed. Henry F. Graff. 3^rd ed. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 1-     21. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. International Academy High School. 30 Apr. 2008 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?         p=GVRL&u=lom_inac>. 

"George Bush Interview." Achiever Gallery. Williamsburg: American Academy of Achievement, 1995. 

"Gulf War 1991: Entry." History in Dispute, Vol. 15: The Middle East Since World War II, Part Two. David W. Lesch, ed. St. James Press, 2003. History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.