"I personally believe that Blanco and Co. were more concerned about the politics"
There is no doubt about this. From even before the beginning of this crisis, the Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco, has treated this situation as a "political" issue. As I watched her last Sunday morning press conference (Aug 28), I was amused at how she invoked the presidents name on several occasions.
Blanco noted how she spoke to the president the day before (Saturday, Aug. 27) and how it was Bush who called to inform her that he had issued her state, a state of emergency and offered any help she might need.
This was unusual since I know (from living in Florida) that it is usually the Governor who makes this declaration by him/herself. But even more unusual was how Blanco noted that it was also the president who called her to insist and plead that she issue a mandatory evacuation.
At the time I didn't realize why she was turning all this responsibility over to the president...but than I realized why. Just a year ago when Hurricane Ivan barely missed the city of New Orleans, both the Governor and the city planners took extreme heat for the inconveniences they caused their population when hurricane Ivan "didn't" hit their city. Both state and local officials took criticism from all areas, including their failures to prepare for that hurricane.
Amazingly, that criticism is what led to the slow reactions we saw this past weekend as katrina approached the Louisiana coast. Each public official looked to the other to make the life-saving calls because they didn't want to be responsible for another false alarm. In other words, their was no leadership from the start. When Bush called to find out what the heck was going on and tell her to get moving, Blanco finally had a scape-goat, should Katrina NOT hit the city.
These "political" decsions were evident throughout this disaster. Blanco had the authority to immediately deploy her national guard to fill the role of local "law enforcement" at anytime during this crisis. This was a political decision because she did not want to be the person responsible for giving orders that might result in the shooting of "poor, black people." Can you imagine the outrage come election day if she were known as the governor who gave the orders to kill her own constituents.
Even her refusal to turn over authority to the Feds was political, as she even admitted this in a Washington Post article. She didn't want martial law or any apparence that she couldn't handle this situation. As a result of her politics, the people of Louisiana suffered.