CORRECTED-Bush makes third trip to hurricane-hit region

In NEW ORLEANS story headlined “Bush makes third trip to
hurricane-hit region” please read in third paragraph, “Bush was
greeted at the airport by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and then
they took a helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima,” instead of “Bush
was greeted at the airport by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin,
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who is heading relief
operations, and Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the military
commander in New Orleans.”

A corrected story follows.

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 11 – President George W. Bush arrived in
New Orleans on Sunday for a two-day visit to the Gulf Coast
region during which he will for the first time tour the
interior of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

It was the third trip to the area for Bush since the
hurricane struck two weeks ago, and coincided with the fourth
anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack, the other major
disaster on U.S. soil that his administration has been forced
to deal with.

Bush was greeted at the airport by New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin and then they took a helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima,
where they met Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who is heading
relief operations, and Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the
military commander in New Orleans.

On Monday, Bush will receive a Katrina briefing on board
the Iwo Jima, after which he was scheduled to tour New Orleans
in military vehicles. He will then take an aerial tour of one
of the parishes and meet with parish officials. Bush will end
his visit with two stops in Gulfport, Mississippi, before
returning to Washington.

The trip gives Bush the opportunity to “continue to assess
the situation on the ground and visit with those who are
overseeing operations on the ground to hear from them” about
immediate needs and future recovery and rebuilding efforts,
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Bush, whose approval ratings hit an all-time low in recent
public opinion polls, has faced harsh criticism that his
administration was too slow in responding to the crisis in
which hundreds of thousands of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama residents were displaced by Katrina.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said on CBS’s
“Face the Nation” program that the Bush administration was
trying to shift blame to local officials.

“While the president is saying that he wants to work
together as a team, I think the White House operatives have a
full-court press on to blame state, local officials, whether
Republican or Democratic,” she said.

McClellan rejected that accusation and said the
administration was working with state and local officials to
deal with the disaster.

“We are trying to work together with state and local
officials to make sure that we respond together as we develop
plans for the recovery and rebuilding effort,” he said on Air
Force One en route to New Orleans.

INCOMPETENCE ‘COLORBLIND’

Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency who was sharply criticized for the federal government’s
response, was sent back to Washington and Allen put in charge
of the relief effort on the ground.

“I think that the entire country felt shame about what had
happened,” Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, said on
ABC’s “This Week” program.

But regarding criticism that the administration had been
uncaring about a population that was largely black and poor,
Obama said that he believed the incompetence was “colorblind”
and rather officials were detached from the realities of
inner-city life.

“I would like to see him (Bush) reach out to a broader
circle of leadership in the African-American community and
indicate that what he saw woke him up,” Obama said.

McClellan said the president met last week with faith-based
and community leaders including blacks and that the
administration was making an effort to expand contacts in that
community.

Recent public opinion polls show Bush’s approval ratings
sinking to new lows. A Newsweek magazine survey found that 38
percent of Americans approved of Bush’s performance, and a Time
magazine poll showed 42 percent were satisfied with the job
Bush was doing.

The president’s ratings had been slipping before the
hurricane hit due to increased uneasiness over the Iraq war.