George Walker Bush.

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George Walker Bush became the 43rd and current  in . Bush was the winner of one of the closest elections in American history, defeating   , by only 5  votes. The election results were hotly contested for several weeks until ,  when the  ruled in favour of Bush in the case .

Criticism of Bush the candidate and Bush the President have sometimes centered less around policy than on his level of intelligence. This perception was based on his self-indulgent youth, his constant , his lack of interest in policy details, and also on his embrace of Texan culture.

Questions about Bush's intelligence also became an issue during the  election. Some supporters of Bush's chief opponent in that campaign, Al Gore, often portrayed Bush as intellectually inferior to Gore.

Following the th attacks, President Bush enjoyed the highest approval ratings in history. High approval ratings are historically common for war time Presidents, but Bush was able to maintain his high approval ratings a year later, and as of , , had the highest approval rating of any President during a mid-term election, since . However, one poll showed that only a minority of the electorate would vote to reelect him, thus suggesting that the support may be more for his office as commander-in-chief than for him as a leader. That same poll showed that "nearly half either say they'll likely back a Democrat, or that their choice 'depends' on Bush's rival."

Some also suggested that Republican Party's historic victory in the  mid-term elections were due to Bush's presumed popularity. Historically, the party in the  loses seats. But in , during what was expected to be an extremely tight election, the Republicans ended up gaining seats in both houses, and retaking control of the Senate in the process. The party in control of the White House had not gained seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in a mid-term election for 100 years. However, others have argued that the Democrats lost the election because of their timidity in criticizing Bush as a "wartime" President. A New York Times poll taken a month after the midterm elections showed 37% of voters pleased with the outcome, as opposed to nearly 50% who had been pleased with the outcome 1994 midterm election.

Bush's original platform, before the , the , and the  (though domestic policy has not changed significantly):

Concerning the economy, his slogan was, "Whoever pays taxes gets a tax break". The rich pay the most taxes, and the current system weighs the income tax against the upper income brackets; Bush's proposed tax plan reduces the taxes on the top income brackets by a greater percentage than middle-income brackets. Bush also supported raising the , which would primarily benefit the lower brackets of income-tax-affected citizens.

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His 2003 tax proposal offers a sweeping package of tax cuts and incentives that would eliminate all federal taxes on stock dividends, quick tax relief for married couples and a $400-per-child increase in the tax credit for families with children.

The administration's proposal would also lower taxes for small business owners by expanding the amount of equipment purchases they can write off as deductions from the current $25,000 to $75,000. Opponents argue that this tax proposal would primarily benefit the rich.

Education policy named ‘’, includes mandatory national testing and some support for school vouchers. It also makes high ...

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