Indeed. Katrina was a Cat five which made landfall as a cat three just east of New Orleans. Everyone thought they had dodged the bullet until the levee was breached and the 9th Ward was flooded (oh, I forgot — Bush blew the levee up so that black people would die or lose their homes /sarc). There was an incompetent Mayor who didn’t follow the evacuation plan for New Orleans. And whose idea was it to make the Super Dome (or whatever it’s called) the refuge of last resort, when it’s right in the flood plain??? Then there was an incompetent Governor. In addition, Bush was constrained in his response by posse comatatis.
Irene, otoh, made landfall as a relatively weak cat 1. True, it was slow and is causing a lot of flooding, but it’s nothing on the scale of Katrina. Obama had cooperative Governors and Mayors in every state, with well-thought-out LOCAL evacuation plans and good coordination and execution of those LOCAL plans. No comparison.
Which is why this little PR game won't go anywhere. Even if the American people are stupid enough to blame Bush for Katrina (some are), they are at least smart enough to remember that Katrina was a horrible, horrible natural disaster and Irene is just big and wet.
(And it might be nice to point out to anyone who never realized it that Mississippi got the worst of it and recovered better because they DID have a competant Governor).