I agree with your assessment.
IIRC, didn’t President Bush declare an emergency several days before Katrina even hit?
And with Isaac, obama dragged his feet before making such a declaration? In fact signing it the very day that Isaac made it’s initial landfall. And the declaration has been roundly criticized as not enough by Governor Jindal and others.
With Katrina, the entire blame for the New Orleans fiasco rests with that idiot governor blanco, and the moron mayor nagin.
To evacuate New Orleans alone requires action at a minimum of 40 hours before landfall, and nagin waited until just 19 hours before calling for a mandatory evacuation.
blanco refused to sign the emergency waiver that would have allowed any licensed driver to operate public transit busses (including school busses) to help with the evacuations.
Blanco refused to allow federal command of the Louisiana National Gurad.Thats what slowed the rsponse. Blanco did it to herself by playing politics above wanting to bring aid to the People.
...”President Bush, during a visit to Louisiana September 2, 2005, five days after the storm, offered to federalize the Louisiana National Guard to simplify the command structure. The Governor declined, because the Guard would then become part of the federal military forces and therefore lose much-needed policing powers. The President subsequently continued to press the offer so Governor Blanco rejected it in writing.....”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Blanco
That says it all.