First daughter Jenna Bush marries her longtime boyfriend Henry Hager Saturday night.

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) — First daughter Jenna Bush and Henry Hager — the son of a well-connected Virginia Republican — say "I do" Saturday on President Bush's 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"I had to face some very difficult spending decisions and I've had to conduct sensitive diplomacy. That's called planning for a wedding," Bush told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 12.

The plans are largely under wraps, but they call for gathering by a lake in front of an altar and four-foot high cross made from Texas limestone.

"This is the time when the wildflowers are all blooming. And I think it will be a very, very lovely wedding, and it will be very like Jenna and Henry," first lady Laura Bush recently said.

Jenna Bush told CNN's Larry King on April 24 that the wedding will include "all relatives, our families, really, kind of big. So it's half-family and then half-very close friends." More wedding details »

Not all of her friends will be on hand though.

Read more here

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In his weekly radio address, President Bush talks about his daughter's wedding and celebrating Mother's Day across the country.

President Bush tried to break election watchdog deadlock Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Democrats accused President Bush Tuesday of withdrawing one of his Federal Elections Commission nominees to protect Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

The president revamped his list of nominees earlier Tuesday in an effort to break a long deadlock that has paralyzed the election watchdog in the middle of a contentious campaign year.

But instead of withdrawing the name of Republican Hans von Spakovsky — a former Justice Department Civil Rights section lawyer some Democrats believe promoted policies that harmed minority voters — Bush dropped commission chairman David Mason, a Republican who has blocked McCain's attempts to abandon the presidential public financing system.

Bush replaced Mason on his list with Republican Donald McGahn, the National Republican Congressional Committee's lead lawyer and a former attorney for Rep. Tom Delay, the former Republican House Majority Leader with connections to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. DeLay resigned from Congress
after he was accused of corruption.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush asked Congress Friday for $70 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan amid a developing dispute between the White House and congressional Democrats over Iraq spending.

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New poll numbers show bad news for president Bush.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon (22 percent and 24 percent, respectively) but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland added. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 66 percent disapproval in January 1952."

CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider adds, "He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974." President Nixon's disapproval rating in August 1974 stood at 67 percent.

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Watch John McCain's remarks on President Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' speech.

(CNN) – John McCain today said that President Bush was not to blame for the decision to speak in front of the famed “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln five years ago.

“Do I blame him for that specific banner? of course not,” McCain told reporters during a press conference Thursday afternoon in Cleveland.

The presumptive Republican nominee said that he feels responsibility should rest with elected officials who made statements at the time that “were contradicted by the facts on the ground.”

McCain, who has been a fierce critic of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for years, said again that the former cabinet member was to blame for misleading statements. “When the leaders of government – the Secretary of Defense – says that ‘there’s only a few dead enders,’ then that is an area that responsibility should be placed, in my view.”

Asked if there will ever be a moment when the United States’ mission will indeed be accomplished in Iraq, McCain responded: “I don’t know if you could ever say quote ‘mission accomplished’ as much as you could say ‘Americans are out of harms’ way.’”

Bush to address the economy Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –- President Bush will hold a Rose Garden press conference Tuesday morning to discuss the nation’s current economic situation and address “Americans’ understandable anxiety about issues affecting their pocketbooks,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

“He will also call upon Congress to send him sensible and effective bills that will help Americans weather this difficult period and keep our country moving forward,” said Perino, adding that Bush will urge the House and Senate to approve legislation to help ease energy prices, and address the mortgage crisis, rising food prices and student loans.

The news conference is scheduled to take place at 10:31 a.m. ET.

Watch Bill Clinton discuss the economy Monday.

(CNN)— Former president Bill Clinton criticized the Bush administration’s stimulus checks Monday saying they will only help the economy if everyone spends them and no one saves them.

“You know what you are supposed to do with these stimulus checks, is stimulate,” Bill Clinton told a group of his wife’s supporters while campaigning Indiana. “Go out and blow it. Don’t you dare pay down your credit card or save it,” he quipped.

The federal government started depositing the stimulus checks Monday into bank accounts of 800,000 Americans hoping the extra money will encourage people to spend.

Between now and July, the treasury will distribute more than $110 billion to at least 117 million low and middle income homes.

Clinton said the fundamental issue is most people need the checks to pay off credit debt and bills. “Even if it’s all spent the way the president and Congress hoped it would be,” the current housing crisis would dwarf any possible gains.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush poked fun at his potential successors Saturday night, expressing surprise that none of them were in the audience at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.

"Senator McCain's not here," Bush said of GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain. "He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit. You know, he's not alone. Jenna's moving out too."

Bush then referred to scandals that have dogged the campaigns of the two remaining Democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, in explaining their absence: "Hillary Clinton couldn't get in because of sniper fire and Senator Obama's at church."

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President Bush's disapproval rating hits all time high Tuesday.

(CNN) — It’s one record President Bush would just as soon have left standing.

In the Gallup Poll released Tuesday, Bush registers a 69 percent disapproval rating, the highest in that survey’s history – higher even than President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

But he can take comfort in the fact that the lowest positive rating in history still belongs to another commander-in-chief: Harry Truman, whose 23 percent mark in 1951 still bests Bush’s 28 percent approval. The runner-up in that category is Nixon, with 24 percent in 1974, shortly before his resignation.

The discrepancy lies in the number of people who told interviewers they did not know, or did not have an opinion.

President Bush denied the U.S. is in a recession Tuesday.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — President Bush denied Tuesday that the United States' economy is in recession, calling it instead a "slowdown."

He pointed out that the economy grew in the last quarter of 2007 and that figures are not yet in for the first quarter of 2008. A common rule of thumb says a recession is two consecutive quarters of the gross domestic product shrinking.

But in the United States, an official declaration of a recession is made — often after a recovery has already begun — by a committee from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private organization.

It defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity" over a period of a several months, and takes into account the depth of the decline, not just the duration, according to the NBER's Web site. It also uses a broad array of indicators in addition to the GDP, it says.

The United States has not been in recession since 2001, but many economists expect a recession this year. Some economists have said the United States is already experiencing one, and surveys suggest much of the public agrees.

Related: Watch a clip of Bush discussing the economy Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration will announce new regulations for its No Child Left Behind education program and propose a uniform graduation rate Tuesday, officials said.

The changes, to be announced by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in Detroit, will "strengthen and improve" the No Child Left Behind law, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.

He said the updates are a "follow on" to President Bush's comments in January, when he said that if Congress did not act this spring to update the law, the president would ask Spellings to strengthen it through administrative actions.

"She's done a lot of traveling around, talking to educators and policymakers about how to improve No Child Left Behind," explained Stanzel. "She's … found consensus on several issues."

(Updated 12:03p to include new regulations)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush will nominate Steve Preston to replace Alphonso Jackson as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a senior administration official said Friday.

The nomination must be voted on by the Senate.

Preston administers the Small Business Administration, a job he began in July 2006. That agency advocates on behalf of small businesses, helps advance the economy and assists in rebuilding efforts following a disaster.

(CNN) — Issues of faith again take center stage Wednesday in the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily.

White House Correspondent Ed Henry reports on Pope Benedict XVI's visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider reports on Sen. Barack Obama's meeting Wednesday with Jewish leaders. Schneider also takes a closer look at whether Obama has a problem with Jewish voters.

Suzanne Malveaux is on the campaign trail and files a report about Sen. Hillary Clinton's prospects in Pennsylvania's upcoming primary on April 22.

Finally, Chief National Correspondent John King caught up with Sen. John McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee continues to discuss his new economic proposals with voters. King also asked McCain about a Clinton supporter's statement that McCain is told old to be president.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

President Bush's job approval rating hits all time low Friday

(CNN)— With the economic outlook looking dim and the continued war in Iraq, President Bush’s job approval rating hit an all time low Friday, according to a just released poll.

The latest Gallup poll shows the president’s approval dropped to 28 percent, the lowest of his eight years in office.

The survey, which questioned 1,021 adults between April 6 and 9, with a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent, found the decrease came largely because of Democratic and Independent dissatisfaction with his administration. Only 6 percent of Democrats questioned and 24 percent of Independents had a favorable opinion of President Bush, with about two-thirds support coming from Republicans.

The new estimate marks one of the lowest approval ratings any president has seen since World War II, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Harry Truman, who all had a mid 20 percent approval rating in their final years in office. The all time lowest presidential approval rating was 22 percent in 1952 during Harry Truman’s final year in office, who like President George W. Bush dealt with problems related to the economy and an unfavorable war.

Bush’s approval ratings have hovered around the low 30 percent range since July of 2007. It reached a high of 90 percent in 2001, just days after the September 11 attacks.

Bush released his tax returns Friday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President and Mrs. George W. Bush reported taxable income of $719, 274 for the tax year 2007 and paid $221,635 in federal income taxes, the White House said Friday.

They contributed a total of $165,660 to churches and charitable organizations, including the Crawford (Texas) Volunteer Fire Department, Susan G. Komen For the Cure, Malaria No More Fund, Martha's Table, and a St. John's Church.

Vice President Cheney and his wife earned $2,528,068, the White House said, and owe taxes of $602,651. The Cheneys paid $466,165 in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments, and will pay the remaining $136,486 upon filing their tax return.

Bush's income included salary earned as president and investment income from the trusts in which his and his wife's assets are held. The tax return also reports a $150,000 advance received by Laura Bush for the children's book she co-authored with daughter Jenna.

Laura Bush donated all net proceeds from the advance to Teach for America and the New Teacher's Project, the White House statement said.

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) — President Bush will release his tax return Friday, a spokesman said.

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) — The economy and the Iraq war — the top issues on the minds of voters as the 2008 presidential election approaches — took center stage Thursday in Washington, D.C.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Ed Henry reports on President Bush's address to the nation about his next steps in Iraq.

Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, was in New York City courting the female vote. Dana Bash reports on McCain's appearance on a popular talk show.

Pennsylvania is the next battleground in the Democratic presidential nomination race. Sen. Barack Obama is getting some help from a prominent union leader. Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider takes a look at Obama's effort to win over blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania.

Finally, on Capitol Hill, efforts are underway to provide some relief from the mortgage crisis that has rocked the nation's financial system. Kate Bolduan explains what lawmakers are considering to calm down the troubled housing market.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

President Bush meets with Gen. David Petraeus, left, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — "Serious and complex challenges" remain in Iraq that will prevent further withdrawals of American troops this summer despite a reduction in violence in the past year, President Bush announced Thursday.

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White House spokeswoman Dana Perino left the door open Bush may not attend the opening ceremonies.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — For the first time, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino Tuesday left the door open to President Bush skipping the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing to protest China's crackdown in Tibet and human rights record.

Asked by CNN at an on-camera briefing if Bush will specifically attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing, Perino would not be definitive. "We haven't provided any schedules on the president's trip," she said.

Pressed on whether Bush's decision to attend the Olympics is "irreversible" or could be affected by developments, Perino hedged. "Any time the president — the president can always make a change," she said. "But the President has been clear that this is a sporting event for the athletes and that pressuring China before, during and after the Olympics is the best way for us to try to help people across the board in China, not just Tibetans."

What the president has not been clear on is whether or not he will attend the opening ceremonies, which are typically a major showcase for the host country. Bush has only said he will attend the Olympics in general, stressing he's a sports fan who wants to support U.S. athletes at the games.

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