Laura Bush

"The position of First Lady has no rules, just precedent, so its evolution has been at a virtual standstill for years. If Martha Washington didn't do it, then no one is sure it should be done." ~ Paula Poundstone

"This lady is not for turning." ~ Margaret Thatcher

"You may be a princess or the richest woman in the world, but you cannot be more than a lady." ~ Jennie Jerome Churchill

"I am not George's adviser. I'm his wife. I don't advise him about policy, but we do talk about issues and personalities." ~ Laura Bush

"I'm going to give you some reasons tonight to put me back in, but perhaps the most important reason of all is so that Laura has four more years." ~ George W Bush

First Lady Laura Bush

Bush Buss

Laura Lane Welch was born an only child to Harold [a residential home contractor] and Jenna [the family business'bookkeeper] Welch [loyal Democrats] on November 4, 1946 in Midland Texas.

Laura & her mom Jenna

A paradoxically shy yet popular child, Laura's passion for reading, led naturally in later years to her chosen professions---elementary school teacher[six years in the Dallas and Houston school systems] and librarian;

earning a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1968 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and in 1973 a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of Texas in Austin [Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush, respectively, have the distinction of being the only First Ladies to hold post graduate degrees]. In August of 2002, the Leander Independent School District in Texas dedicated a newly constructed school [part of Taylor Woodrow contractors planned community] in honor of Laura Bush---Laura Welch Bush Elementary.

No life is immune to tragedy. Laura's parent's attempts to have more children resulted in premature births---in some cases the siblings survived, but only a few days. At age 17, Laura Welch was in a car accident which resulted in the death of her friend and popular high school athlete Michael Dutton Douglas. Circumstances leading up to and after the crash have been foddder for partisan dispute: Had Laura or her friend Judy Dykes been driving? Had the speed limit been adhered? Was a stop sign run? In 1963 the Midland Police Department filed a report of the accident, but no criminal charges were filed. To view the official police report, click the links below.


Midland Texas Police Confidential Accident Report
[part2] Midland Texas Police Confidential Accident Report

It's a small world. Laura and her future husband George W Bush were both raised in Midland Texas and were 7th graders at the same junior high school [though they did not know each other at the time]. As post college graduates they were neighbors in the same Houston apartment complex, but their paths did not cross. Later they were introduced at a barbeque in August of 1977 by mutual friends, and in November of the same year, Laura and George were wed. Before agreeing to marry, Laura made her fiance promise that she would never have to give a public speech [her future father-in-law George H W Bush was planning to run for president in 1980].

After marrying, Laura retired from working outside the home, became a homemaker, and returned to college academia as a student taking literature courses. In the interim she had difficulty conceiving a child; she and her husband were considering adoption, when she became pregnant with twins. The pregnancy was not an easy one and it was feared that if she did make it to term that one of the twins would not survive. In June of 1981, their twin daughters Barbara and Jenna [named for their grandmothers] were born.

In 1995 Laura released GW from the 'no speeches' promise when he campaigned for and subsequently won the office of Governor of Texas. As the First Lady of Texas, Laura spearheaded the campaign at the Texas Book Festival which raised nearly $1,000,000.00 for Texas' public libraries, and helped draft legislation for the "Reading Readiness" programs for Texas' pre-schoolers. When her husband became the GOP's front runner for the 2000 presidential nomination, Laura gave a keynote speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. As national First Lady she chaired the "Ready to Read, Ready to Learn" literacy initiative, and is a formidable fund and awareness raiser of strides in the fight for a cure for breast cancer [her mom Jenna is a breast cancer survivor]. Post 9/11 she became the first First Lady to deliver the president's weekly radio address, and was an activist to educate the world to the atrocities committed by the Taliban on the women of Afghanistan.

Ancestry of Laura Lane Welch Bush
Bush 43's Nicknames for Laura: First, Bushie, Stretch, Lump[in my bed]
Laura's Hobbies: Hiking and Camping

Inside the Debate Strategies

BUSH TEAM WANTS TO SEE KERRY SWEAT AT DEBATES

New York – When a race for president gets this close, no detail is too small to leave to chance, TIME’s John Dickerson and Karen Tumulty report. Which is how it happened that a man who once oversaw Middle East peacemaking found himself haggling last week with one of Washington’s most storied power players over the matter of ... colored lights. The proposal: to allow the millions of Americans watching this week’s first presidential debate to see the warning signal whenever George Bush or John Kerry has exceeded his allotted time to answer a question, TIME reports.

‘It’s Like a Game Show’ It was a transparent gambit by the President’s representative, former Secretary of State James Baker, to raise the famously windy challenger’s chances for embarrassment. “Undignified,” sniffed a Kerry strategist. “It’s like a game show.” But Kerry’s negotiator, lawyer Vernon Jordan, gave in—just as he had to Baker’s earlier demand that the lecterns be an unimposing 50 in. tall, and that they be placed fully 10 ft. apart, making it less likely the 5-ft. 11-in. Bush will look miniaturized in comparison with the 6-ft. 4-in. Kerry. When Jordan and Baker finally came to an agreement at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, putting their heads together over a laptop to approve the official announcement, they headed for the bar, TIME reports.

‘He’s a Sweater’: “He’s a sweater,” chortles a G.O.P. official about Kerry, “and women don’t like sweaters.” That’s why Bush’s team was happy to have the Kerry campaign climb down from its demand that the debate hall be chilled to below 70 degrees. The Jordan-Baker agreement stipulates that the debate commission use “best efforts to maintain an appropriate temperature according to industry standards.” Whatever those are.

Three Debates: What Kerry’s camp got were three debates, rather than the two that Bush’s campaign initially said it wanted. Getting three contests “was much more important to us than any detail of the format,” says Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. A challenger always wants as many chances to stand on the same stage as the sitting President and take some shots, and Kerry thinks the debates are a place he can shine, TIME reports.

Bush Listening to Audiocassettes of Kerry’s Favorite Attack Lines: Aides have given Bush audiocassettes of Kerry’s favorite attack lines, which the President listens to as he flies between campaign events on Air Force One and sometimes as he works out, TIME reports.

Bush Started Prepping This Summer: With so much on the line, Bush started prepping this summer and has had occasional full-length dress rehearsals, but the pace picked up last weekend at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, who played Al Gore in the 2000 drill, stood in for Kerry, and admaker Mark McKinnon took the role of the first debate moderator. It all took place in a one-story building known as the Conference Center, where Bush practiced behind a lectern and aides flashed cue cards that told him how much time he had left, just as officials will at the debate. Sessions were scheduled for 9 p.m. E.T., so that the early-to-bed Bush could set his body clock to the precise time of the real thing.

Postdebate Spin: Just as important to their campaigns will be winning the post-debate effort to spin what actually happened. It wasn’t until a day or two after the first debate in 2000 that the analysis turned to Al Gore’s exaggerated claims and his patronizing sighs. But it so neatly fit with the existing narrative about Gore that it became more important than anything else that happened that night—particularly among the vast majority of Americans who had not watched the debate with their own eyes. A study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy center found nonviewers’ opinions of Gore eroding as the coverage of his manner grew more negative. So for all the energy the campaigns put into preparing for every eventuality before the debates, the greatest debate may be the one that comes after they’re over, TIME reports.

TIME’s Matthew Cooper, Perry Bacon Jr. and Eric Roston contributed to this report.

Contact: Ty Trippet, 212-522-3640, Jennifer Zawadzinski, 212-522-9046