If Bush had done that in 2005, the media and the Left would have screamed bloody murder. Nauti-nurse and anyone who followed the Katrina live threads knows that it was Clinton’s former head of FEMA who advised Gov Blanco not to request Federal participation for one very bad extra day. And that was done specifically so that President Bush could not be seen to be “in charge.”
Two or three days before Katrina made landfall, I remember hearing something on CBS or ABC radio network news. President Bush was begging Nagin and the LA governor (Landrieu?) to declare a state of emergency -- or perhaps it was that Bush was urging that New Orleans be evacuated. I think they even broadcast a clip of him saying so.
But at that point, both Dems were denying the situation could ever get out of hand.
Yes he did. And before the storm hit, he also deployed US Navy support ships from the East Coast down to the Gulf of Mexico, so they could follow the storm into the Gulf, in order to be of assistance at the earliest opportunity. The media never shared that bit of info with the public.
FEMA reserved whole cruise ships to be used as emergency housing, and the residents of NOLA refused to go aboard to live there. They were not only stranded in New Orleans but picky as to their new digs. So the govt ate the cost of three months or so of entire cruise ship rentals.