The more I read about what was and wasn't done before and after the hurricane the more it seems odd to me that the President's taking such a big political hit. If you compare September 11 with Katrina, it's clear to me that the Administration was to blame for a lot more of what went wrong that day than they were to blame for what went wrong before and after Katrina hit.
To my mind, some disorganization and red tape snafus in the Katrina relief effort are as nothing compared with the following that led to September 11 attacks:
- failure to tighten up immigration procedures both at embassies and at ports & airports
- failure to streamline & improve intelligence operations
- failure to dismantle the excessive barriers between intelligence gatherers and the FBI
- continuing love-fest with the Saudi government
There are other things I could mention. And, sure, these are all hold-overs from the Clinton era, but Bush campaigned in 2000 against the Clinton Administration's record. He could have come to office and made sweeping changes.
