I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know (20 page)

“America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.”

Born

July 6, 1946 New Haven, Connecticut

Political Party

Republican

Vice President

Richard Cheney

First Lady

Laura

Children

Barbara and Jenna (twins)

Pets

Miss Beazley and Barney, Scottish terriers; India, a cat

A Close Election

The 2000 presidential election was such a close race that it took 40 extra days to count all the votes. Finally, the Supreme Court had to decide which of the candidates—Al Gore or George W. Bush—had actually won. Even though Gore won the popular vote by a narrow margin, the high court voted 5-to-4 that Bush was the 4winner.

Early Days

Born in Connecticut, Bush moved as a toddler to Texas with his family and had a happy childhood.

George W. went to Yale University and then Harvard Business School, after spending a year flying F-102 fighter jets for the Air National Guard.

Terror Strikes

The governor of Texas, Bush was also, for a while, part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He came to the White House wanting to improve education and lower taxes, but history stepped in and shifted his focus.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four American airplanes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon (the nation’s military headquarters) near Washington, D.C., and one into a field in Pennsylvania (although the plane was likely headed to the capital).

FUN FACTS

George W. Bush was head cheerleader in his senior year of high school.

George Bush did not veto (reject) any legislation during his first term in office. In contrast, Harry S. Truman vetoed 250 bills over the course of his presidency.

A Strong Response

President Bush declared war on terrorism. He created a new Department of Homeland Security to help make sure attacks like that wouldn’t happen again. And he sent American troops to invade Afghanistan, where the terrorists had their training camps and where Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorists, was thought to be hiding.

Bush also became convinced that Iraq’s brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein, was involved in terrorism and was hiding weapons of mass destruction (even though inspectors from the United Nations couldn’t find them). He convinced Congress to authorize an invasion of Iraq, a decision that later became controversial at home and abroad.

A Tough Second Term

Bush had been a popular president during his first term, but his decision to invade Iraq, his slow response to helping people affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, and a slowdown in the U.S. economy made him less popular by the time he left office.

THE ELECTION PROCESS

THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Let’s say you want to be president. Are you qualified for the job? According to the U.S. Constitution, you have to be able to say yes to these three questions:

• Are you at least 35 years old?

• Are you a native-born citizen of the United States? (Were you born in the U.S.?)

• Have you been living in the United States for at least 14 years?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, you can run for president!

Political Parties and Primaries

Before you can run for president, your political party has to choose you to be its candidate. State and local governments hold elections called primaries and caucuses in late winter and spring. Political parties use these elections to determine which candidate they will nominate for president later at their national convention.

Conventions

Delegates from each political party in each state officially choose their candidate at their national convention the summer before the presidential election. Each delegate votes for his or her favorite candidate. A candidate needs to get a majority of delegate votes to win the nomination. The winner—the candidate—then chooses a vice president. Together, the presidential candidate and the vice-presidential candidate form a ticket.

The Electoral College

The candidates for each party spend the rest of the summer and part of the fall trying to convince voters that they are the right person to be president. In November, people in each state vote for who they think would make the best president. Even though voters see the candidate’s name on the ballot, they are not voting directly for the candidate; instead, they are voting for a group of people in their state called electors. These electors—who form what is called the Electoral College—are supposed to vote for their state’s favorite candidate. Whichever candidate wins the most votes in a particular state generally wins all of that state’s electors—winner takes all!

Electors

Different states get different numbers of electors. The number of electors equals the number of senators and representatives each state has. Every state starts with two electors—since every state has two senators—and then adds more electors depending on the population of that state. For example, a state with few people like North Dakota gets three electors; a state with lots of people like California gets 55 electors. Each elector gets one vote for president and one vote for vice president. There are a total of 538 electoral votes. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes—the majority of the electoral votes—to become president.

The winning electors then gather in December at their state capitals to cast their votes for president and vice president. In early January, the Electoral College votes are counted, and the winner—whoever gets the majority of the votes—is announced. Although this is the official result of the election, everybody knows who won on election day in November by the number of electoral votes each candidate receives.

When Winners Are Losers

Surprisingly, a candidate can win the popular vote nationwide but still lose the election (see box). How can this happen? It all goes back to the Electoral College. If a candidate wins a lot of popular votes but only in a few states, he will lose to a candidate who wins more states—because candidates win based on the number of electoral votes they receive, not on the number of votes the voters cast for them.

This has happened four times in U.S. history. Here are the candidates who won the popular vote but lost the election:

• Andrew Jackson lost to John Quincy Adams in 1824

• Samuel Tilden lost to Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876

• Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888

• Al Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000

FUN FACT

If no candidate receives the 270 votes required to win, the House of Representatives decides the election. Each state gets to cast one vote. This has happened only twice: the election of 1800 and the election of 1824.

44th President ~ 2009–

BARACK OBAMA

Barry

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.”