George H. W. Bush's tenure as the 41st president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1989, and ended on January 20, 1993. Bush, a Republican from Texas and the incumbent vice president for two terms under President Ronald Reagan, took office after defeating the Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. His presidency ended following his re-election defeat to the Democratic nominee Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. Bush was the father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush.
International affairs dominated the Bush presidency, which navigated the end of the Cold War and a new era of U.S.–Soviet relations. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bush successfully pushed for the reunification of Germany in close cooperation with West German chancellor Helmut Kohl, overcoming the reluctance of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He also led an international coalition of countries which invaded and defeated Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in the Gulf War. On a smaller scale he directed a military invasion to overthrow a dictator in Panama. Bush signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trilateral trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
In domestic affairs, Bush faced a large federal budget deficit. Despite pledging he would not raise taxes, Bush agreed to a budget with the Democratic-controlled Congress that raised taxes and cut spending. He received bipartisan criticism for the perceived "flip-flop" on the issue of taxation during his 1992 campaign. Bush nominated David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1990 and 1993, respectively. During his tenure, he signed into law the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
In the aftermath of allied victory in the Gulf War, Bush was widely considered likely to win re-election, but Clinton defeated Bush with Ross Perot, the third-party candidate, taking a large chunk of the electorate. Despite his defeat, Bush left office with a 56 percent job approval rating, and he remained popular with the public until his death in 2018. In polls of historians and political scientists, Bush is generally ranked as an average to above-average president.
1988 election
Having served in various government positions, particularly the position of Director of the CIA, Bush sought the presidential nomination in the 1980 Republican primaries. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan, a conservative former governor from California. Seeking to balance the ticket with an ideological moderate, Reagan selected Bush as his running mate. Reagan triumphed over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, and Bush took office as vice president in 1981. Bush enjoyed warm relations with Reagan, and the vice president served as an important adviser and made numerous public appearances on behalf of the Reagan administration.Greene (2015), pp. 20–24
Bush entered the 1988 Republican presidential primaries in October 1987. He promised to provide "steady, experienced leadership", and Reagan privately supported his candidacy.Greene, pp. 27–30 Bush's major rivals for the Republican nomination were Senate minority leader Bob Dole of Kansas, Congressman Jack Kemp of New York, and Christian televangelist Pat Robertson.Greene, pp. 30–31 Though considered the early front-runner for the nomination, Bush came in third in the Iowa caucus, behind Dole and Robertson. Due in part to a financial advantage over Dole, Bush rebounded with a victory in the New Hampshire primary, then won South Carolina and 16 of the 17 states holding a primary on Super Tuesday. Bush's competitors dropped out of the race soon after Super Tuesday.Greene, pp. 35–37
Bush, occasionally criticized for his lack of eloquence when compared to Reagan, delivered a well-received speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Known as the "thousand points of light" speech, it described Bush's vision of America: he endorsed the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer in schools, capital punishment, and gun rights. Bush also pledged that he would not raise taxes, stating: "Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I'll say no, and they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again. And all I can say to them is: read my lips. No new taxes."Greene, p. 43 Bush selected little-known senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate. Though Quayle had compiled an unremarkable record in Congress, he was popular among many conservatives, and the campaign hoped that Quayle's youth would appeal to younger voters.Greene, pp. 40–41
While Bush won a swift victory in the Republican primaries, many in the press referred to the Democratic presidential candidates as the "Seven Dwarfs" due to a lack of notable party leaders in the field. Senator Ted Kennedy and Governor Mario Cuomo both declined to enter the race, while the campaigns of former senator Gary Hart and Senator Joe Biden both ended in controversy. Ultimately, Governor Michael Dukakis, known for presiding over an economic turnaround in Massachusetts, emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee, defeating Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, and several other candidates.Greene, pp. 37–39 Leading in the polls, Dukakis launched a low-risk campaign that proved ineffective.Greene, pp. 39, 47 Under the direction of strategist Lee Atwater, the Bush campaign attacked Dukakis as an unpatriotic liberal extremist. The campaign seized on Willie Horton, a convicted felon from Massachusetts who had raped a woman while on a prison furlough; the Bush campaign charged that Dukakis presided over a "revolving door" that allowed dangerous convicted felons to leave prison.Greene, pp. 44–46 Dukakis damaged his own campaign with a widely mocked ride in an M1 Abrams tank and a poor performance at the second presidential debate.Greene, pp. 47–49
Bush defeated Dukakis by a margin of 426 to 111 in the Electoral College, and he took 53.37 percent of the national popular vote. Bush ran well in all the major regions of the country, but especially in the South.Greene, p. 49 He became the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836, as well as the first person to succeed a president from his own party via election since Herbert Hoover in 1929. In the concurrent congressional elections, Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.Patterson (2005), pp. 224–225
Inauguration
Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 1989, succeeding Ronald Reagan. He entered office at a period of change in the world; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Union came in his presidency. In his inaugural address, Bush said: Bush would go on to describe his vision of the nation, saying:America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not loudly and proudly, but as a simple fact, that this country has meaning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a force for good. But have we changed as a nation even in our time? Are we enthralled with material things, less appreciative of the nobility of work and sacrifice?
My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?
Administration
Bush's first major appointment was that of James Baker as Secretary of State; Baker was Bush's closest friend and had served as Reagan's White House chief of staff.Greene, pp. 53–55 Bush's first pick for Defense Secretary, John Tower, was rejected by the Senate, becoming the first cabinet nominee of an incoming president to be rejected. Leadership of the Department of Defense instead went to Dick Cheney, who had previously served as Gerald Ford's chief of staff and would later serve as vice president under George W. Bush.Naftali, pp. 69–70 Kemp joined the administration as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, while Elizabeth Dole, the wife of Bob Dole and a former secretary of transportation, became the secretary of labor under Bush.Greene, pp. 56–57 Bush retained several Reagan officials, including Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas F. Brady, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos.Greene, pp. 55–56
Like most of his predecessors since Richard Nixon, Bush concentrated executive power in the Executive Office of the President.Greene, pp. 58–59 New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu, a strong supporter of Bush during the 1988 campaign, became chief of staff. Sununu would oversee the administration's domestic policy until his resignation in 1991.Patterson, p. 232 Richard Darman, who had previously served in the Treasury Department, became the director of the Office of Management and Budget.Greene, p. 58 Brent Scowcroft was appointed as the national security advisor, a role he had also held under Ford.Naftali, pp. 66–67 In the aftermath of the Reagan era Iran–Contra affair, Bush and Scowcroft reorganized the National Security Council, vesting power in it as an important policy-making body. Scowcroft's deputy, Robert Gates, emerged as an influential member of the National Security Council.Greene, pp. 58–60 Another important foreign policy adviser was General Colin Powell, a former national security advisor who Bush selected as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989.Greene, p. 129
Beginning mid-May 1991, several damaging stories about Sununu, many of them involving taxpayer funded trips on air force jets, surfaced. Bush was reluctant to dismiss Sununu until December 1991, when Sununu was forced to resign. Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner, who earned plaudits for his handling of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, replaced Sununu as chief of staff. Clayton Yeutter also joined the administration as a counselor to the president for domestic policy.Greene, pp. 200–202 Baker became chief of staff in August 1992 and was succeeded as Secretary of State by Lawrence Eagleburger.
Vice President Quayle enjoyed warm relations with Bush, and he served as a liaison to conservative members of Congress. However, his influence did not rival that of leading staffers and cabinet members like Baker and Sununu. Quayle was often mocked for his verbal gaffes, and opinion polls taken in mid-1992 showed him to be the least popular vice president since Spiro Agnew. Some Republicans urged Bush to dump Quayle from the ticket in 1992, but Bush decided that picking a new running mate would be a mistake.
Judicial appointments Supreme Court