George W. Bush

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She I created this presentation with trunk fee.

It is on George W.

Bush and his presidency from 2000 and 1 to 2009

and specifically assessing his presidency to see how effective it

was and how.

Yeah, I mean, basically how effective it was.

So to start off with in terms of executive powers,

um, President Bush issued 291 executive orders.

One of his first actions in office was to create

the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives through uneducated

border. Um, this was in initiative to or an office,

uh, specifically to provide funding, essentially government funding and subsidies

to, uh, nonprofit and or like charitable organizations that were

associated with religious organizations such as churches.

Um, and this was a point of contention among, uh,

many people because, uh, people, especially those in the Democratic

Party, um, as opposed to President Bush's Republican Party, um,

people felt that it was a violation of the separation

of church and state.

Um, with government giving money to organizations linked with churches,

it alienated some, um, members of the government and the

parties. So, uh, he appointed 460 international ambassadors, um, and

nominated 36 people to his cabinet.

Um, of those 36.

34 were accepted by, um by the Legislature and tour

withdrawn. Two nominations were withdrawn.

Those air Linda Chavez and Bernard Kerik.

Um, and none of his nominations were rejected.

Um, so it was a very notable cabinet because of

a few, uh, major, uh, firsts in terms of diversity

within the within presidential cabinets.

So, um, for example, this cabinet contained the first African

American secretary of state, which is Colin Powell, as well

as the first African American woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza

Rice and the first Pacific Asian Cabinet member, um, Who

was Elaine L.

Chao, who is a secretary of Labor.

Um, during his presidency, President Bush also created the Department

of Homeland Security.

Um, as a response to the as part of his

response to the attacks on 9 11 notable presidential signing

statements that President Bush made were, um, those on September

18th, 2001 and three days later, September 22nd 2001, both

part of his immediate response to the tragedy of 9

11, the one on September 18th involved, um, essentially him

declaring that they would, that the government would be willing

to use military force to retaliate.

Um, toothy attack, um, which he later did by sending

US troops to Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban led government.

Um meanwhile, the one on September 22nd 2001, uh, created

tools to immediately help secure airlines, which was a bit

of a precursor to the Travel Security Agency or the

TSA, which was created November 19th of that same year.

Um, still in response to 9 11 and was, um,

or permanent initiative than the presidential signing statement.

Uh, on the TSA eventually joined the newly created Department

of Homeland Security in 2003.

So in terms of military engagements, um, immediately after 9

11, uh, there were two states of emergency declared, um

to both of which are still active.

And both are, uh, used to justify much of the

United States military involvement in the Middle East.

Um, between 2001 and the modern day, um, these states

of emergency essentially gave President Bush the authority to use

any and all necessary force without needing direct congressional approval

for every, um, initiative, essentially giving, um, the president Mawr

direct control of the military, which, as commander in chief,

he had but didn't have the authority to, um, like

under the War Powers Act, didn't have the authority to

take on extended, uh, aggressive actions without congressional approval.

But this essentially gave him that ability.

Um, uh, major military engagements that he let like he

began included the prior mentioned, um hey.

Gathered international forces to overthrow the, uh, government in Afghanistan.

Um, and he also sent military troops to Iran after

receiving intelligence, uh, related to potential nuclear weapons in the

country. This'll was in 2002, and over the course of

his presidency, he declared 13 states of emergency, 11 of

which are still ongoing, including those two that were declared

right after 9 11.

Mhm. There were five major treaties signed during his presidency.

Uh, the first of these was the Bonn Agreement, which

was plans for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the U.

S. Role in that after the invasion and overthrowing of

the government led by the United States, um, in 2000

to the Moscow Treaty was signed, which limited the U.

S. And Russian possession of nuclear weapons.

Um which was further, uh, d de escalation from the

Cold War that was still trickling down.

Um, in 2004, the Internet, the so called international seed

treaty, was signed, um, which assured farmers access to, like

worldwide farmers access to seeds for, um, security crops, in

case uh, other crops became or died out.

So just security, uh, 2005 was the Dominican Dominican Republic

Central America Free Trade Agreement.

And in 2000 and eight, there was a treaty signed

between the United States and Iraq.

Thio, uh, agreed to withdraw American troops from the country

by 2011.

So, um, in terms of legislative power he gave the

State of the Union address every year, and his, uh,

the average word count of his, uh addresses were, um,

around 5000, which is significantly less than the average for

presidents after him, which, um, is interesting.

Um, he tried to veto 12 times, but four of

those vetoes were overridden by the Legislature.

Um, so he only successfully vetoed acts eight times some

significant, um, Vito or significant acts that he vetoed, where

the Food Conversation and Energy Act, which he which was

event which, which was then overridden by, um Congress.

So then that passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act

and the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.

In terms of judicial powers, he pardoned, commuted or rescinded

convictions of 2, 200 people.

Um, some notable examples of this where Jose Compean and

Ignacio Ramos, who were to ah U S Border Patrol

agents who injured a drug smuggler, um, in February of

2005 and then tried to cover up the incident.

Um, they received commutation of the sentence, which is shortening

of their sentence in 2009, um, by President Bush on

then the other three other major one is, uh, Lewis

Libby, also known as Scooter, who was wth e assistant

to the president and the chief of staff to Dick

Cheney, the vice president.

And he was convicted of perjury in connection to a

C A scandal because he lied to investigators, um, and

was sentenced to 30 months and in prison and fined

$250,000 in 2007.

Um, and he received a commutation of his president sentence

by President Bush and later received a full pardon from

President trump into 2018, um, in terms of Supreme Court

nominations, President Bush nominated, uh, three people to the court,

though technically, um, John Roberts was nominated twice because he

was withdrawn and then re nominated as chief chief Justice

after the previous chief Chief Justice past, um, during the

process of Roberts is, um, approval on the others were

Harriet Myers, who was withdrawn, and Samuel Alito, who was

confirmed in terms of informal powers.

He, um he utilized the bully pulpit, um, to somewhat

fear monger and but use that to unite the country.

So, um, he like after 9 11, he unified the

country across, um, partisan lines by essentially providing them with

a like singular, uh, a party to hate.

Essentially which, um, was like the Taliban and, uh, terrorist

scattered around the world specifically from this quote, like thousands

of dangerous killers schooled in the methods of murder, um,

now spreading throughout the world like taking time bombs.

Um, this is from the his 2002 State of the

Union address, which was, um, I believe, his first State

of the Union address that he gave um, he described

himself as a compassionate conservative and he pushed for laws

that both aligned with his party and, um, laws that

were criticized across party lines.

So, um, it was a bit of a mixed bag

as the leader of his, um, political party in terms

of special interest groups, uh, there were several fossil fuel

companies who helped to fund his initial campaign for president.

And once he became president, he, um, went back on

a couple of his promises, such as the ra members

of his staff that promised to include carbon dioxide as

a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, which, um, once

upon becoming President Bush then, uh, push to remove, uh,

to or to exclude to better help fossil fuel companies.

Um, and he also withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, which

was a, um, plan to reduce emissions by I think

it was either by, like, 2012 or 2020 or something

like that.

Um, he also opened more federal federal land for, um,

mining for, uh, and, like, oil and natural gas exploration.

Let's see if this works.

I don't know if it will, but okay, I don't

think it will.

It's It was, um, a clip of the State of

the Union address where he said the quote in the

previous slide.

So, um, in terms of final assessment, was he an

imperial president?

Um, yes, we would say so.

Um, because he like, with the passing of the Patriot

Act following the following 9 11, which, um, restricted many

First Amendment rights and took away, like certain freedoms and

the right to privacy from citizens, essentially as well as,

um, the whole idea of using Guantanamo Bay as a

base for enhanced interrogation methods despite being ah U S

military base it it's kind of an abuse of power,

Um, and as well as his tactic of fostering nationalism

through uniting around hating a common enemy, which was that

fearmongering thing mentioned earlier with the bully pulpit.

Um, was he effective?

Um, yes, because he did unite the country after 9

11 across party lines, and he had a 90% approval

rating after 9 11.

But he also, um, the last few months of presidency

led to a major crash of the stock market and

several controversies in the start of a recession.

So that wasn't great.

Um, so in terms of final grade, we gave him

a C minus, uh, putting all that into considered

George W. Bush

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