Campaign '04: How Well Did He Serve?

Bush said he reported for duty in Alabama, but even with the new documents, the evidence is thin. TIME looks at four key questions

George W. Bush has long had a habit of giving people nicknames--and perhaps that's because he picked up a few along the way himself. Like the one he earned in 1972, when he left his home in Houston to work on the long-shot Senate campaign of Winton M. (Red) Blount in Alabama. Bush, then 26, would often turn up at campaign headquarters in Montgomery around lunchtime, recount his late-night exploits and brag about his political connections, according to a Blount campaign worker. All that made him slow to win over the Alabama crowd, who began to complain that Bush was letting...

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