Bush still caught in the storm
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One year after Hurricane Katrina’s wind and water ruined 200,000 homes along the Gulf Coast and displaced nearly 1 million people, New Orleans and smaller communities are not all that remain to be rebuilt. President Bush, who accepted blame for the faltering federal response to the disaster, still suffers from the political fallout of a storm that raised questions about the competence of his administration in the face of a catastrophe and about his sensitivity to the poor. The president’s political standing, also battered by the Iraq war and criticism of his handling of matters at home, has not recovered from a year of controversy rooted in Katrina. Some question whether it ever will. While the storm challenged the administration’s readiness for crisis, a year of cleanup still incomplete and rebuilding still promised has cast doubts on the president’s follow-through. The crisis exposed a deep vein of poverty in America, Bush said at the time, tracing that poverty to “a history of racial discrimination” and vowing to address its inequities. More : seattletimes.nwsource.com |