George 'Dubya' Bush

\nHe's a Texan. He's tanned, he talks with his dad's hand gestures, and he wears Ostrich skin cowboy boots with "GW" imprinted into the leather.\nHe is the man who would be president.\nHe's been the son of a President, an oil man, the owner of a professional baseball team, the governor of Texas and now a would-be president himself. He's the bright, shining hope of some and the bane of others. \nGeorge W. Bush, GW, George the Younger, George Junior: Dubya.\nWhen Dubya was born, July 6, 1945, his parents, George Herbert Walker and Barbara Bush were students at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. George Senior was a war hero, having won the Distinguished Service Cross after being shot down while flying a bombing mission in WWII.\nHe and Barbara had been married for a year when Dubya was born. After graduating in 1948, they took Dubya to Odessa, Texas where George, Sr. got a job in the oil industry. In 1954, the 9-year-old was a catcher for a local Little League team. He attended his first baseball game when his dad played for Yale.\n"I never dreamed about being president," Dubya said on his Web site. "When I was growing up, I wanted to be Willie Mays."\nBy 1964, Dubya had five siblings and was attending Yale. He followed further in his father's footsteps by pitching for the baseball team. By 1966, he was playing rugby for Yale, and George Sr., was beginning his first of two terms as a Republican representative from Texas. In 1975, Dubya received a master's of business administration degree from Harvard University.\nHe spent the next three years investing in Texas land, researching mineral rights and, eventually, starting his own oil company. In 1989, while George Sr. was president, Dubya became the managing partner of a group of investors that purchased the Texas Rangers. As owner of the Rangers, Dubya won public funding for a new $200 million dollar stadium, but traded a young slugger who went on the hold the record for most home runs in a three-year span: Sammy Sosa.\nMany considered the Sosa trade a dumb move. In the August 2000 edition of National Journal, reporter Kirk Victor posed the question: "Does Bush's poor judgment in that instance say anything about his ability to manage the country?" \nVictor reported an answer from National League president Leonard Coleman Jr . who said, "Unfortunately, in baseball, you can always look back at that one bad deal" and pointed out Hall of Famer Frank Robinson being traded by the Reds for "a bunch of forgettables."\nIn 1994, Dubya left the team after being elected governor of Texas. At the same time, his brother Jeb became governor of Florida. \nDubya decorated the governor's office with more than 200 autographed baseballs and touted himself as reducing crime and air pollution and improving the Texas educational system. \nAfter six years as governor, Dubya entered the Republican primary to contend for the presidency. He won and is now in the final weeks of the closest bid for the presidency since Republican Ronald Reagan beat Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980.\n"My agenda opens wide the doors of opportunity," Dubya said on his Web site. "For every man and woman a chance to succeed... for every child a chance to learn. To every family a chance to live with dignity and hope. I hope you will join me in this great cause."\nInformation for this article came from slate.com, georgewbush.com, whitehouse.gov, encyclopedia.com, The National Journal and Businessweek.