George W Bush

New figures from Gallup place President Obama's reelection bid in a precarious gray zone between the one-term exit of presidents like George H.W. Bush, and successful second-term victories like those of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Combining Obama's job approval rating with several evaluations of public sentiment on the economy, Gallup's indicators show that the president is performing better than he was just a year ago, but his numbers are nonetheless lackluster compared with those of his predecessors.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, after a four-year break from terrorism issues, is set to decide as soon as Monday whether to again take up constitutional challenges to George W. Bush-era anti-terrorism laws involving wiretapping and the Guantanamo prisoners. In one case, the Obama administration is asking the court to block a suit against the government's monitoring of international phone calls and emails. And in the other set of appeals, lawyers for six detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are asking the justices to make good on their promise of four years ago and give the inmates a "meaningful opportunity" to be released.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

A UC Berkeley law professor who helped the Bush administration create policies to justify harsh interrogation techniques and prolonged detention may not be sued by an American citizen detained under those conditions, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Jose Padilla, an American citizen arrested in 2002 and declared an "enemy combatant," may not hold professor John Yoo liable for "gross physical and psychological abuse" that Padilla said he suffered during more than three years of military detention.

Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush said Wednesday that he thinks schools should teach "different forms of how the world was formed," with evolution taught alongside creationism. The Texas governor, visiting Delaware for a round of fund-raising and campaigning, said he supports "morality-based" education in public schools.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said there is no question that President-elect George W. Bush will face a slowing economy when he takes office and that Congress needs to get to work quickly on his economic proposals, including a tax cut. Speaking on the GOP's weekly radio address, he cited rising interest rates worldwide, oil prices nearly twice as high as a year ago and a spike in natural gas prices driving up home heating bills this winter.

If things don't work out in November, George W. Bush could always flip burgers. At an impromptu stop during his California campaign swing, the Texas governor stepped behind the counter at Watson's Drug Store in Orange and took over burger-flipping duties Thursday. "How do you like 'em? Raw?" Bush shouted to reporters as he stood, spatula in hand, before a griddle loaded with sizzling burgers. He tried his hand at turning one over and posed for a picture with the startled cook.

George W. Bush--tired, triumphant and at long last the Republican nominee for president--left his party's convention Friday morning on a four-state, pan-vehicular tour through the battleground Midwest, vowing to "keep the momentum alive." With overnight polls showing a significant post-convention bounce, the Texas governor said the challenge now is to "take my message to the key electoral states and work hard and campaign."

Presidential nominee George W. Bush made his first full-fledged Orange County campaign stop Wednesday for a taste of the bread and butter that long has defined this Republican-rich county: an appearance for the GOP faithful at a colorful venue and fund-raisers to rake in large sums of money. The Texas governor delivered a standard, if brief, campaign speech in a familiar staging site for local Republican campaigns--the green tile and red pagoda columns of the Asian Gardens mall in Little Saigon.

What's to like about taxes? Most people view them at best as a necessary evil to help pay for robust government services - a public benefit. But cigarette taxes are an anomaly. In their case, the tax itself is a public benefit. Proposition 29, which would place a $1 levy on each pack of cigarettes sold in California, would serve the common good by making cigarettes more expensive. Economists have demonstrated conclusively that taxes on cigarettes are an effective tool for reducing smoking rates, which not only benefits the health of current and potential smokers but clears the air for people who would otherwise be exposed to secondhand smoke.

George W. Bush, the man behind the tax breaks now sparking debate from President Obama and his likely challenger, Mitt Romney, just wishes that the policies didn't bear his name. “I wish they weren't called the Bush tax cuts,” he said, chuckling, during a speech at the New York Historical Society. “If they were called someone else's tax cuts, they'd be less likely to be raised.” But with Bush's moniker firmly attached, the policies are turning out to be a key election talking point.

WASHINGTON - Eight years ago, George W. Bush administration lawyers went before the Supreme Court arguing that the justices should defer to the president during wartime and allow the commander in chief to decide how to treat "enemy combatants" held at Guantanamo Bay. To their surprise, they lost. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joined with the liberal bloc to rule that these prisoners had a right to a judicial hearing. This week, President Obama's lawyers went before the Supreme Court arguing that the justices should defer to Congress when it comes to regulating health insurance.

In a further closing of Republican ranks, former President George H.W. Bush formally endorsed -- or, rather, re-endorsed -- Mitt Romney on Thursday and said it was "time for the party to get behind" the former Massachusetts governor. Appearing with Romney and former First Lady Barbara Bush at his office in Houston, the nation's 41st president alluded to the 1970s country music hit "The Gambler," by Kenny Rogers, mangling the lyrics somewhat. "I do think it's time for the party to get behind Gov. Romney," Bush said.

Mitt Romney heads to Texas Thursday to accept the formal backing of former President George H.W. Bush - another prominent figure in the Republican establishment who may add to the pressure for Romney's GOP rivals to bow out of the race.   The former president's endorsement was expected after he told the Houston Chronicle last fall that he thought Romney was “the best choice for us.”  His wife, Barbara Bush, had formally endorsed Romney and recorded calls on his behalf were used to sway voters in the Super Tuesday states of Ohio and Vermont.

President Obama seized on a new jobs report as evidence that "the economy is getting stronger," as he pitched a set of manufacturing initiatives in territory key to his reelection chances. "The key now, our job now, is to keep this economic engine churning," Obama said from the floor of a jet engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Va. "We can't go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. " Obama's trip, deemed official and not campaign business, came hours after the Labor Department announced that the economy had added 227,000 jobs in February, a stronger showing than economists expected but not enough to move the 8.3% unemployment rate.

With ex-presidents earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees and book deals, a bipartisan effort is underway in Congress to scale back taxpayer support for well-to-do former occupants of the Oval Office.   The Presidential Allowance Modernization Act seeks to amend a half-century-old law that sought to "maintain the dignity” of the office of the president. The proposal would provide a taxpayer supported pension of $200,000, about the same amount that they now receive.

The first great American autobiographies both appeared in the 19th century, were born of conflict and written by public men ? "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" and "The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. " Since then, what we might call the publishing-industrial complex has turned the reminiscences of our public men and women into a never-ending stream. As former President George W. Bush ? barely two years out of office ? points out in the acknowledgement of his memoir, "Decision Points," virtually every member of his extended, very political family has published a bestseller, including his parents' dogs.

"You're trying to get me to make news," George W. Bush chuckled, deflecting a question about the battle to renew his tax cuts. "And I'm trying to sell books. " The 43rd president gently rebuffed his old pal and golf buddy, Rush Limbaugh. He might have been outlining the strategy for the extended tour he has just launched to promote his memoir, "Decision Points. " Bush's onetime spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said in one interview before Tuesday's roll out that her old White House boss is "not interested in having a debate about the policies.

Questionable moral character, use of illegal drugs, the abandonment of a child and a willingness to distort reality: Welcome to the FBI dossier of Steve Jobs. On Thursday the agency released a file on Jobs that it had compiled in 1991, when the Apple Inc.co-founder was in the running for an appointment under President George H.W. Bush. Included in the 191-page document are confirmations of Jobs' dabblings in marijuana and LSD, his strained relationship with a high school girlfriend with whom he had a child out of wedlock and even some scribbled notes from a time he received a bomb threat in 1985.