Oct 23, 2008

George W. Bush

George W. Bush is the eldest among the six children of George H. W. Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a Senator from Connecticut, and his father served as U.S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush attended The Kinkaid School as a child, Phillips Academy during his high school years and, following his father’s footsteps, Yale University where he received a bachelor ’s degree in history in 1968.

In May 1968, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard, after scoring the lowest acceptable passing grade on the pilot’s written aptitude test. After training, he was assigned to duty in Houston, flying Convair F-102s out of Ellington Air Force Base. Although he wasn’t accepted at the University Of Texas School Of Law, he accepted a transfer to the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972 to work on a Republican senate campaign, and in October 1973, he was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard. He then went to Harvard University, where he earned his MBA, and completed his six-year servce obligation in the inactive reserve.

In 1977, he was introduced by friends at a backyard barbeque to Laura Welch, a school teacher and librarian. Bush married her on November 5 of 1977 after a three-month courtship and proposal. They settled in Midland, Texas. Laura had twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, in 1981, graduating from high school in 2000 and from the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, respectively, in 2004.

In 1978, Bush ran for the House of Representatives from Texas’s 19th congressional district. He lost to Kent Hance by 6,000 votes. Bush returned to the oil industry and began a series of small, independent oil exploration companies.

In 1988, Bush and his family moved to Washington D.C. to work on his father’s campaign for the U.S. presidency. He worked as a campaign adviser and served as liaison to the media; he assisted his father by campaigning across the country. Returning to Texas after the successful campaign, he purchased a share in the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in April 1989, where he served as managing general partner for five years. In December 1991, Bush was one of seven people named by his father to run his father's 1992 Presidential re-election campaign; Bush's title was "campaign advisor".

As Bush's brother, Jeb, sought the governorship of Florida, Bush declared his candidacy for the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. Winning the Republican primary easily, Bush faced popular Democrat incumbent Governor Ann Richards. His campaign focused on four themes: welfare reform, tort reform, crime reduction, and education improvement. Bush's campaign advisers were Karen Hughes, Joe Allbaugh, and Karl Rove.

In June 1999, while Governor of Texas, Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States. With no incumbent running, Bush entered a large field of candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Along with Bush, that field of candidates consisted of John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, Orrin Hatch, Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, John Kasich and Robert C. Smith.

Bush portrayed himself as a compassionate conservative. He campaigned on a platform that included increasing the size of the United States Armed Forces, cut taxes, improve education, and aid minorities. By early 2000, the race had centered on Bush and McCain.

Bush won the Iowa caucuses, and although he was heavily favored to win the New Hampshire primary, he trailed John McCain by 19% and lost that primary. However, the Bush campaign regained momentum and, according to political observers, effectively became the front runner after the South Carolina primary. The South Carolina campaign was controversial for the use of telephone poll questions phrased negatively toward McCain.

On July 25, 2000, Bush surprised some observers by asking the Halliburton corporation's chief executive officer Dick Cheney, a former White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Representative, and Secretary of Defense, to be his running mate. Cheney was then serving as head of Bush's Vice-Presidential search committee. Soon after, he was officially nominated by the Republican Party at the 2000 Republican National Convention.
Bush continued to campaign across the country, and touted his record as Governor of Texas. Bush's campaign criticized his Democratic opponent, incumbent Vice President Al Gore, over gun control and taxation.
As the election returns came in on November 7, Bush won twenty-nine states including Florida. The closeness of the Florida outcome led to a recount. Two initial counts went to Bush, but the outcome was tied up in courts for a month until reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. On December 9, in the Bush v. Gore case, the Court reversed a Florida Supreme Court ruling ordering a third count, and stopped an ordered statewide hand recount based on the argument that the use of different standards among Florida's counties violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The machine recount stated that Bush had won the Florida vote by a margin of 537 votes out of six million cast. Bush received 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266. However, he lost the popular vote by 543,895 votes, surpassing the previous 1876 election record. This made him one of three Presidents elected without receiving a plurality of the popular vote.

Bush commanded broad support in the Republican Party and did not encounter a primary challenge. He appointed Kenneth Mehlman as campaign manager, with a political strategy devised by Karl Rove.
Bush carried thirty-one of fifty states for a total of 286 electoral votes. He won an absolute majority of the popular vote (50.7% to his opponent's 48.3%).

Oct 20, 2008

John McCain

John McCain was born to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain at Coco Solo Nacal Air Station in Panama. His family, his older sister Sandy and younger brother Joe included followed his father to various naval postings ion the United States and in the Pacific. Altogother, he attended about 20 schools.

In 1951, the family settled in Northern virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria where he excelled at wrestling and graduated in 1954.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain enrolled at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. there, he was a friend and unofficial leader to many of his classmates and he was also a lightweight boxer. He came into conflict with higher-ranking personnel and did not always obey the rules, resulting to his having a low class rank (894 of 899), despite his having a high IQ. As with many students, he did well in subjects that interest him, such as literature and history, but studied only enough to pass those he had difficulty with, such as mathematics. McCain graduated in 1958.

McCain's pre-combat duty started when he was commissioned an ensign, and began training for two and a half years at Pensacola as a naval aviator. He completed flight school in 1960 and became a naval pilot of ground-attack aircraft, assigned to A-1 Skyraider squadrons aboard the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. He started as a sub-par flier, oftentimes crashing the planes he was assigned. His skills improved over time and he was seen as a good pilot, though he tends to do dangerous stunts in his flying. On July 3, 1965, McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia. McCain adopted her two young children Douglas and Andrew. He and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney.

His combat duty began when he was 30 years old, in summer 1967, when Forrestal was assigned to a bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, during the Vietnam War.

By then a lieutenant commander, McCain was almost killed on July 29, 1967, when he was near the center of the Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded; McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder. Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star for missions flown over North Vietnam.

McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment as a prisoner of war (POW) beagan on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi. McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him. McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton". Although badly wounded, his captors efusd to treat his injuries, continuously beating amd interrogating him for information; he was given medical care only upon disconery of the North Vietnamese that his father was a top admiral. His being a POW made the front pages of many newspapers.

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving minimal care. By then, he has lost 50 pounds, was in a chest cast and with his hair turned white, McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live for very long. In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.

In mid–1968, John S. McCain, Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes, and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially. McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military Code of Conduct: To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured.

McCain's return to the United States reunited him with his family. His wife Carol had suffered her own crippling ordeal due to an automobile accident in December 1969. McCain became a celebrity of sorts, as a returned POW.

McCain underwent treatment for his injuries, including months of grueling physical therapy, and attended the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974. Having been rehabilitated, by late 1974, McCain had his flight status reinstated, and in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida. He improved the unit's flight readiness and safety records, and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation. During this period in Florida, McCain had extramarital affairs, and the McCains' marriage began to falter, for which he later would accept blame.

In April 1979, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had founded a large beer distributorship. They began dating, and he urged his wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980, with the uncontested divorce taking effect in April 1980. The settlement included two houses, and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments due to her 1969 car accident; they would remain on good terms. McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980, with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart attending as groomsmen. McCain’s children did not attend, and several years would pass before they reconciled. John and Cindy McCain entered into a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they would always keep their finances apart and file separate income tax returns.

McCain decided to leave the Navy. It was doubtful whether he would ever be promoted to the rank of full admiral, as he had poor annual physicals and had been given no major sea command. His chances of being promoted to rear admiral were better, but McCain declined that prospect, as he had already made plans to run for Congress and said he could "do more good there." McCain retired from the Navy on April 1, 1981 as a captain. He was designated as disabled and awarded a disability pension. Upon leaving the military, he moved to Arizona. His 17 military awards and decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Navy Commendation Medal, for actions before, during, and after his time as a POW.

McCain set his sights on becoming a Congressman because he was interested in current events, was ready for a new challenge, and had developed political ambitions during his time as Senate liaison.

In 1984 McCain and his wife Cindy had their first child together, daughter Meghan. She was followed two years later by son John Sidney McCain IV (known as "Jack"), and in 1988 by son James ("Jimmy"). In 1991, Cindy McCain brought an abandoned three-month old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa. The McCains decided to adopt her, and named her Bridget.

McCain announced his candidacy for president on September 27, 1999 in Nashua, New Hampshire, saying he was staging "a fight to take our government back from the power brokers and special interests, and return it to the people and the noble cause of freedom it was created to serve". The leader for the Republican nomination was Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment.

John McCain formally announced his intention to run for President of the United States on April 25, 2007 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He stated that: "I'm not running for President to be somebody, but to do something; to do the hard but necessary things not the easy and needless things." He also said that the United States should never fight a war without fully committing the necessary resources, unlike what initially occurred in Iraq.

On February 5, McCain won both the majority of states and delegates in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries, giving him a commanding lead toward the Republican nomination. Romney departed from the race on February 7. McCain's wins in the March 4 primaries clinched a majority of the delegates, and he became the presumptive Republican nominee.

McCain, having been born in the (Panama) Canal Zone, will if elected become the first president who was born outside the current 50 states. This raises a potential legal issue, since the United States Constitution requires the president to be a natural-born citizen of the United States. A bipartisan legal review and a unanimous Senate resolution both concluded that he is a natural-born citizen, but the matter is still a subject of some legal controversy. Also, if inaugurated in 2009 at age 72 years and 144 days, he would be the oldest U.S. president upon ascension to the presidency, and the second-oldest president to be inaugurated.


Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was revealed as McCain's surprise choice for running mate on August 29, 2008. McCain was only the second U.S. major-party presidential nominee to select a woman for running mate and the first Republican to do so; Palin would become the first female Vice-President of the United States if elected. McCain and Palin became the Republican Party's Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees, respectively, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, on September 3, 2008 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. On September 24, McCain said he was suspending his campaign, called on Obama to join him, and proposed delaying the first of the general election debates with Obama, in order to work on the proposed U.S. financial system bailout before Congress, which was targeted at addressing the subprime mortgage crisis and liquidity crisis. McCain's intervention helped to give dissatisfied House Republicans an opportunity to propose changes to the plan that was otherwise close to agreement. After Obama declined McCain's suspension suggestion, McCain went ahead with the debate on September 26. On October 1, McCain voted in favor of a revised $700 billion rescue plan. Another debate was held on October 7; like the first one, polls afterward suggested that Obama had won it. A final presidential debate occurred on October 15. The election is set for November 4.

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Barack Obama

Barack Obama is the son of Barack Obama, Sr., a black Kenyan from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where his father was a foreign student. They were separated when he was two years of age and later divorced. Obama's father returned to Kenya and was only given one more chance to see his son before dying in an automoblie accident in 1982. After her divorce, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro and the family moved to Indonesia, Soetoro's home country in 1967, where Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he wasten years old. he then returned to Honolulu, living with his maternal grandparents while attending Punahou School from fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from igh school in 1979. Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for several years then went back to Indonesia in order to complete her dissertation. Ovarian cancer claimed her life in 1995. As an asult, Obama admitted to using marijuana, cocaine and alcohol during his high school years, which he described as his gratest moral failure at the Civil Forum on the Presidency of 2008.

After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles , where he studied at Occidental College for two years. then transfering to Columbia University in New York City, majoring in political science with a specialization in internal relations. He graduated with a B.A. from Colombia in 1983, worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of Developing Communities Project (DCP) and worked there for three years from June 1985 to MAy 1988. During his three years as the director, the organization underwent many improvements and managed major accomplishments from its staff to its budget and other sponsored programs. He also worked as a consultant and intructor for the Gamaliel Foundation. In mid-1988, he was able to travel to Europe for the first time for three weeks then for fine weeks to Kenya, where for the very first time, he was able to meet many of his Kenyan relatives.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988, where he was selected, based on his grades and a writing competition as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. In February 1990, in his secone year, he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position which functions as the editor-in-chief which surprised the LAw Review's staff of eighty editors. His election as the first black president of the Reviewg was widely publicized, followed by ceveral long interviews and profiles.During is summers, Obama returned to Chicago working as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 nd Hopkins & Sutter in 1990. After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from HArvard in 1991, he went back to Chicago.

Beginning in 1992, Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, being first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.

He also, in 1993, joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.

Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served from 1993 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois' 13th District. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures in 2001 as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Commitee on Administrative Rules.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush.

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

In mid-2002, Obama began considering a run for the U.S. Senate; he enlisted political strategist David Axelrod that fall and formally announced his candidacy in January 2003. Obama's candidacy was boosted by Axelrod's advertising campaign featuring images of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and an endorsement by the daughter of the late Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator for Illinois. Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather's experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government's economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War and highlighted America's obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity, saying, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Broadcasts of the speech launched Obama's status as a national political figure and boosted his campaign for U.S. Senate. In August 2004, two months after Ryan's withdrawal and less than three months before Election Day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.

Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005.
Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama, along with Senators Thomas R. Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain, introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

On February 10, 2007 Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The choice of the announcement site was symbolic since it was also where Abraham Lincoln in 1858 delivered his historic "House Divided" speech.

Among the January 2008 DNC-sanctioned state contests, Obama tied with Hillary Clinton for delegates in the New Hampshire primary and won more delegates than Clinton in the Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina elections and caucuses. On Super Tuesday, he emerged with 20 more delegates than Clinton.

In March 2008, a controversy broke out concerning Obama's former pastor of twenty years, Jeremiah Wright.

During April, May, and June, Obama won the North Carolina, Oregon, and Montana primaries and remained ahead in the count of pledged delegates, while Clinton won the Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota primaries. During the period, Obama received endorsements from more superdelegates than did Clinton.

On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976, reversing his earlier intention to accept it.

On August 28, Obama delivered a speech in front of 84,000 supporters in Denver and viewed by over 38 million on television. During the speech he accepted his party's nomination and presented details of his policy goals.

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