President Bush By The Numbers
Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker waits in line to vote Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Wauwatosa, Wis. Walker faces Democratic challenger Tom Barrett in a special recall election. / AP
This story was written by CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
There are many ways to assess President Bush's eight years in office. Countless hours of broadcast time and tons of newsprint are being consumed in that pursuit these days.
And you can agree or not with what's being said and written.
It's difficult for any of us to convey an objective assessment of the Bush presidency - but numbers come close to offering a bit of unbiased insight.
So here - in no particular order - are some of the numbers that mark the record of the 43rd President of the United States. When no source is cited, the numbers are from the tallies I maintained during day-to-day coverage of President Bush.
National Debt Increase: $4.9 trillion.
National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion
Debt when Mr. Bush took office: $5.7 trillion
(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)
Number Of Political Fund-Raisers Attended By President Bush: 338
Amount Or Money Raised At These Fund-Raisers: $802,586,070
(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)
Number Of Baseball Games Attended: 12
(Including Game 3 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, 2001)
Number Of All Sporting Events Attended: 98
(Counting the Beijing Olympics as one)
Number of Cabinet Meetings: 49
Number Of Times President Bush Had Dinner Out At A Restaurant: 21
U.S. Military Deaths In Iraq: 4,228
(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
U.S. Military Deaths In Afghanistan: 634
(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
Medals Of Honor Bestowed By Pres. Bush: 12
(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)
Number Of Commencement Speeches Delivered: 23
(The last one was Dec 12, 2008, at Texas A&M)
Number Of Visits To Camp David: 149, totaling all or part of 487 days.
Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To Camp David: 19, including 3 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 2 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Number Of Visits To His Texas Ranch: 77, totaling all or part of 490 days.
Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To His Texas Ranch: 20, including 2 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (Crown Prince at the time) and 2 by President Vicente Fox of Mexico.
Number Of Visits To His Parents' Home In Kennebunkport, Maine: 11, totaling all or part of 43 days.
Number Of Out Of Town Domestic Trips: 609
(That's not counting Camp David visits or bike riding outings)
Number Of Foreign Trips: 49
Number Of Foreign Nations Visited: 75
Foreign Nations Visited Most: Mexico, Italy and Russia, 6 times each.
Number Of Rounds Of Golf Played As President: 24
(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)
Number Of Katrina-Related Visits To The Gulf Coast: 18
Number Of Formal, Solo, White House News Conferences: 44
Total Number Of News Conferences: 212
(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)
Number Of News Conferences At Which Shoes Were Thrown At Him: 1
Number Of Presidential Pardons: 189
By Comparison:
Bill Clinton: 396
George H.W. Bush: 74
Ronald Reagan: 393
Jimmy Carter: 534
Gerald Ford: 382
Richard Nixon: 863
Lyndon Johnson: 960
John Kennedy: 472
Dwight Eisenhower: 1110
Harry S. Truman: 1913
Number Of Commutations Of Sentence: 11
Number Of Recess Appointments: 165
(Source: Senate Historian)
Democrats blocked the practice in the fall of 2007 by keeping the Senate in session even during holiday periods.
Addresses To The Nation: 23
(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)
Addresses To Joint Sessions Of Congress: 9
(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)
State Dinners For Foreign Leaders: 6
Pres. Vicente Fox of Mexico
Pres. Alexander Krasniewski of Poland
Pres. Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines
Pres. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya
Queen Elizabeth II of UK
Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana
States Not Visited As President: 1, Vermont.
(Last of the other 49 to be visited: Rhode Island, June 28, 2007.)
Vetoes: 12, including 1 pocket veto.
(President Bush did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office - a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)
By comparison:
Bill Clinton cast 37 (not counting line item vetoes)
George H.W. Bush: 44
Reagan: 78
Carter: 31
Ford: 66
FDR: 635
Vetoes Overridden By Congress: 4
H.R. 1495 - the Water Resources Development Act of 2007
H.R. 2419 - the $289-billion "Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008"
H.R. 6124 - The "Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008."
H.R. 6331 - the "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008."
Number Of Flights On Air Force One: 1,674
(Source: Presidential Airlift Group)
Number Of Miles Flown On Air Force One: 1,490,698
(Presidential Airlift Group)
Number Of Chiefs Of Staff: 2, Andrew Card and Josh Bolten.
Number Of Press Secretaries: 4, Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow and Dana Perino.
By Mark Knoller
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. There are many ways to assess President Bush's eight years in office. Countless hours of broadcast time and tons of newsprint are being consumed in that pursuit these days.
And you can agree or not with what's being said and written.
It's difficult for any of us to convey an objective assessment of the Bush presidency - but numbers come close to offering a bit of unbiased insight.
So here - in no particular order - are some of the numbers that mark the record of the 43rd President of the United States. When no source is cited, the numbers are from the tallies I maintained during day-to-day coverage of President Bush.
National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion
Debt when Mr. Bush took office: $5.7 trillion
(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)
(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)
(Including Game 3 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, 2001)
(Counting the Beijing Olympics as one)
(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)
(The last one was Dec 12, 2008, at Texas A&M)
(That's not counting Camp David visits or bike riding outings)
(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)
(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)
By Comparison:
Bill Clinton: 396
George H.W. Bush: 74
Ronald Reagan: 393
Jimmy Carter: 534
Gerald Ford: 382
Richard Nixon: 863
Lyndon Johnson: 960
John Kennedy: 472
Dwight Eisenhower: 1110
Harry S. Truman: 1913
(Source: Senate Historian)
Democrats blocked the practice in the fall of 2007 by keeping the Senate in session even during holiday periods.
(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)
(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)
Pres. Vicente Fox of Mexico
Pres. Alexander Krasniewski of Poland
Pres. Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines
Pres. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya
Queen Elizabeth II of UK
Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana
(Last of the other 49 to be visited: Rhode Island, June 28, 2007.)
(President Bush did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office - a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)
By comparison:
Bill Clinton cast 37 (not counting line item vetoes)
George H.W. Bush: 44
Reagan: 78
Carter: 31
Ford: 66
FDR: 635
H.R. 1495 - the Water Resources Development Act of 2007
H.R. 2419 - the $289-billion "Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008"
H.R. 6124 - The "Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008."
H.R. 6331 - the "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008."
(Source: Presidential Airlift Group)
(Presidential Airlift Group)
By Mark Knoller
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Your comment:
"tell me how many times convicted pedophiles have been christians. then tell me how many convicted pedophiles have been homosexuals. The number is many more homosexuals to little to no chiristians."...
is extremely offensive and not based on fact. There are plenty of male (& female) sex offenders that are heterosexual. (Yes...female heterosexuals that sleep with underage boys count.) From what I remember of those new reports those women were all Christian.
Go ahead...take the time from your ignorant, narrow schedule to look it up...there are more heterosexual pedophiles that prey on underage girls. I feel sorry for you. I hope you stop with the hateful comments and get an education.
tell me how many times convicted pedophiles have been christians. then tell me how many convicted pedophiles have been homosexuals. The number is many more homosexuals to little to no chiristians.
you people make comments based on ignorance.
Posted by superfan_54
How about those many, many priests having *** with boys....not ignorance, fact.
487-Camp David
490-Ranch in Texas
43-Parents house
___________________
1020 days = 2.79 years ON VACATION!
Foreign policy: Iraq, diplomacy - failure
Domestic policy: Katrina, economy - failure
That stat is not accurate in describing this legacy at all. No person, especially not Barrack Obama, could have handled 9/11 as well and as calm as President Bush did.
To the rest,
One more question, I thought him being elected was not supposed to be focus on skin color. Well then why is everything that is going on focusing on skin color. For example, at the inauguration celebration on Sunday many artists came to sing. If it is not about skin color then why did they have to make it equal by bringing out a country singer and then bringing out a rapper? The black Americans are the real racists. Garth Brooks was singing songs that are meant to be sung by someone black. They did not sound right coming out of a country singer. And what is this about the so called "Change" that he said was going to take place right away now not happening until after the first year and a half? Is he going to compromise on every decision he makes? He needs to learn real quick if you people think that he will be "the best president ever" as some people say. Hopefully there is not a big crisis because he is way to inexperienced to handle anything big.
"If we pray...God will heal our land"
-2 Chronicles 7:14
George W. Bush will be ranked # 1 as the Worst President in US HISTORY.
Please add that Stat its the most important stat of all !
''THE WORLDS LOCAL VILLAGE IDIOT.''
Editorials worldwide pillory Bush one final time
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) %u2013 Editorial writers around the world have been taking their final printed whacks at George W. Bush, accusing the president of tarnishing America''s standing with what many saw as arrogant and incompetent leadership.
"A weak leader, Bush was just overwhelmed in the job," said Germany''s Sueddeutsche Zeitung under a headline: "The Failure." "He confused stubbornness with principles. America has become intolerant and it will take a long time to repair that damage."
Editorials hit out at Bush for two unfinished wars, for plunging the economy into recession, turning a budget surplus into a pile of debt, for his environment policies and tarnishing America''s reputation with the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Bush was given credit in some editorials for defending the United States against terror attacks after September 11, 2001.
Canada''s Toronto Star was categorical in its condemnation.
"Goodbye to the worst president ever," it declared. "Bush was an unmitigated disaster, failing on the big issues from the invasion of Iraq to global warming, Hurricane Katrina and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."
cont