Born: 1947

When Laura Welch and George W. Bush were introduced at a dinner in Midland, Texas, they proved the theory that opposites attract. She was a reserved 30-year-old schoolteacher and librarian with a passion for books. He was a gregarious 31-year-old oilman who liked a good time. Within three months, they were wed. Like George, Laura had grown up in Midland, where her father was a homebuilder. But while George went east to study, Laura majored in education at SMU, then earned a masters in library science at the University of Texas. She led a largely private life as a wife and mother of twin daughters until her husband’s gubernatorial win thrust her into the public eye.

As First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush focused on the cause of education. She launched an early childhood development initiative to help ready kids for school, and started the annual Texas Book Festival to raise money for public libraries. She used the statehouse to promote family literacy much as her mother-in-law, former First Lady Barbara Bush, used the White House. When George W. entered the 2000 Presidential race, Laura proved an able and popular campaigner, giving the opening address at the GOP convention. In the years since he was first elected, Laura has emerged as a strong, but discreet, First Lady, who wields no small influence as her husband’s most trusted confidante. Calm, quiet and self-possessed, Laura Bush has been called her husband’s “check and balance.”

Forty-Third President
George W. Bush

Born: 1946, New Haven CT

George W. Bush is the second President, after John Quincy Adams, to follow his father to the White House. The first child of 41st President George H.W. Bush, “George W” grew up in Texas, then went to Andover and Yale before earning a Harvard MBA. Returning home to the oil business, he married teacher Laura Welch, and lost a 1978 race for Congress. In 1988, he joined his father’s Presidential campaign. In 1989, the lifelong baseball fan formed a group to buy the Texas Rangers and became the team’s managing partner. After his father’s 1992 loss to Bill Clinton, George W gave politics another try, twice winning the Texas Governorship. There, he championed crime and tax reduction and education and tort reform. In 2000, he defeated Democrat Al Gore in one of the closest and most contested elections in history-one which took five weeks and a Supreme Court ruling to sort out.

The partisan rancor that followed the 2000 election was erased, temporarily, by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Galvanized by the event, George W declared a “war on terror.” He sent troops to destroy their operating base in Afghanistan, stepped up domestic law enforcement, and in 2003, invaded Iraq. Though U.S. forces quickly ousted Saddam Hussein, they’ve labored to create peace and order. The war became a key issue in the 2004 election, when George W narrowly defeated Democrat John Kerry.

Forty-Third President
Republican