| abstract | - Charles Malcolm Edwards, adopted January 15th, 1964, served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 50th Mayor of Seattle from 1995 to 2000 before being sworn in as President on January 20, 2001. Edwards is the adopted son of Forest and Lisa Edwards, two African American Seattlites that raised Edwards as their own after discovering as an infant. After graduating from UC Berkley, Edwards founded his own Aerospace Firm, Seattle Dynamics. He never married, and went on to design and build the first practical pulse detonation jet engine, before defeating Norm Rice to become Mayor of Seattle in 1994. In a close three way election, Edwards was elected President in 2000 as the first Independent candidate to do so, receiving a plurality of the electoral votes, and popular vote. Eight months into Edwards's first term as President, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred, and Edwards announced a global War on Terrorism, ordered an successful operation to kill the Al Qaeda leaders, and gained a declaration of war and invasion of Afghanistan that same year. In addition to national security issues, President Edwards promoted policies on the economy, health care, education and space-flight. He signed into law the Right Track education reform bill, the Universal Healthcare Act and the American Energy Independence Act. His tenure saw a national debate on immigration and the duty of the government to uphold civil liberties, as reinforced by NeoConGate and the Columbia trials. Edwards successfully ran for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry and former Vice President McCain in 2004, garnering well over 60% of the popular vote to his opponents. After his re-election, Edwards received praise for his staunch defense of civil liberties while maintaining US security. In 2005, the Edwards administration received enormous praise over its handling of Hurricane Katrina, and the subsequent New Orleans Protocols. In 2006 the US successfully captured an Asteroid and began to extract its minerals. In December 2007, the United States entered the largest economic boom in its history and the Edwards administration took more direct control of the economy, enacting multiple economic stimulus packages, and infrastructure projects. In 2008 Edwards signed the Treaty of America, expending the US over the whole of the North American continent. Edwards was a popular president for much of his first term, and while his popularity declined during NeoConGate, it rebounded during the end of his second term to a record high. He holds the record for the highest ever approval ratings ever of an American President and is widely considered to be the greatest President in U.S. history.
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