Leadership by President Bush; “I Take Responsibility For Failures Of Response”

With all the finger pointing by the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana and Democrats abound, President George W. Bush took full and complete responsibility for the failures of the response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government,” Bush said at a White House news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. “And to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong.”

Also from Reuters,

President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for any failures in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and acknowledged the storm exposed serious deficiencies at all levels of government four years after the September 11 attacks.

“To the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush told a White House news conference at which he openly questioned U.S. preparedness for another storm or a “severe attack.”

Lorie at PoliPundit agrees with the apology but has some major reservations. I can certainly agree and follow her reasoning. GWB id the apology for all the right reasons and his critics will use it against him for all the wrong.

It is entirely appropriate that he take responsibility for the actions of the federal government which he has under his control — the “buck stops here,”and all that.