is it true that george bush had no passport when elected

[lukertweek]

is it true that george bush had no passport when elected

[johnlambert]

That wouldnt surpise me as most Americans do not have a passport, when they holiday (vacation) they tend to stay in the US as the country is huge.

[admarlow]

I doubt it, its probabily just something Michael Moore has made up, he would have had one because he travels abroard a lot, and would probabily have a diplomatic one automatically.

[WaldoMcFroog]

When he entered the White House, George W Bush did not hold a valid passport. However, according to

http://www.heartland.it/geopolitics_george_w_b ush_dream.html

prior to his election apart from "a few excursions into Mexico aside, [he] had only been abroad twice." So one has to surmise that he had held a valid passport at some point before he was elected.

[maxximus]

no he did not, nor had he ever been out of his country.

[maxximus]

just read yor post waldo, he was probably in the military on those occasions.

[sp1814]

johnlambert's point is something that should be taken into consideration.

Imagine you lived on a continent where you could go skiing in Colorado, surfing in California, gambling in Las Vegas, hiking in the Rockies, shopping in Boston, sailing in Nantucket, star-spotting in Los Angeles, dancing in Chicago and murdered in New York...

...who would really need to visit another country???

[jake-the-peg]

Anyone who wanted to experience a different culture and broaden their perspective perhaps

[johnlambert]

I've been to New York twice and didnt get murdered, am I just unlucky? should i ask for my money back?

[jake-the-peg]

Only if you were mugged

Boom Boom!

[sp1814]

jake-the-peg

I've been all over the States, and honest, you can really get a whole different perspective on the people in, say, Los Angeles compared to Utah or Boston.

It's really like loads of different countries...with the only common denominator being that everyone's quite....tubby.

[maxximus]

being caught several times for possesion of cocaine and drinking and driving charges he probably was not able to obtain a passport. it would seem becoming president is a way around some of life's little setbacks.

[sp1814]

Good Lord!!! Is that true?

Are we in danger of falling foul of the libel laws here???

Or rather, not 'we', but 'you'.

[jno]

Yes, I'd be interested to hear the evidence for the cocaine claim. I don't think you need a passport to go to Mexico or Canada, though, or at least you didn't in those pre-terrorism days (Americans might like to correct me if I'm wrong there), so Bush may have managed without. As others have said, the USA is a huge and varied country, and Americans do not get long holidays; so they tend to stick close to home.

[kempie]

By sheer coincidence, only days ago US Congress voted an amendment to the proposed changes to passport requirements under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

From June 1, 2009 US citizens will require a passport for land crossings at the Mexican and Canadian borders, and for cruise passengers coming to the US from the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada or Bermuda.

US citizens travelling by air to these regions are required to have a passport by January 8, 2007.

[kempie]

BTW the allegation of cocaine usage by GW was made by his ex sister-in-law Sharon and his contempories at Yale.

http://www.cocaine.org/george-bush/index.html

[Whickerman]

As to the point about not travelling outside the US - there are 50 states + DC. That's 51 countries in effect. When the day comes that there's a federal Europe, we'll no longer need passports for travel within the EU (technically we shouldn't now, but that's a different argument). And how many Europeans have been outside Europe?

[WoWo]

Whickerman - yep and with 39 Historic counties in Britain there is never a need to go abroad, all of them are completely different and give us a chance to sample other cultures.

And as for the idea that Europe is the same as the US, The US has effectively less that 400 years of history most of which was built as a single union, Europe on the other had as many different units all with different languages and deep routed culture built over the last 1000 years plus.

[jno]

I once visited a village in the USA (an inhabited one, not a ruin) dating from somewhere between the 7th and 11th centuries. Not many in Britain going back that far. Of course, there wasn't an 'America' then, but there wasn't a Britain either.

[eladijaz]

I think it should be clear to most that there is much more variety of culture and perspective in Europe than in the many states of the US, however that is not the extent of the argument, since we are not just talking Europe, but the entire world ... world leaders with perspective on the many and varied countries and cultures of the world would be a major advantage for the future of the planet - especially when we are talking about world leaders with the power to extend military might to these countries.
Without perspective, the only attitude one can expect is one of selfishness and hostility.