The same article mentions that the Democratic Senator for Louisana feels that Bush is spin-doctoring by placing the blame on local governments, and that she feels the blame lays completely at the federal level.
She couldn't be spin-doctoring herself could she?
The federal government is responsible for relief efforts when states request aid.
However, the state didn't request aid until a full day after the hurricane hit. Relief was sent faster than with hurricane Andrews. The local government was responsible for evacuating people before the hurricane, and setting up shelters for people who couldn't or wouldn't evacuate.
Most people feel those two things were handled very poorly.
The local government was also responsible for maintaining the leevies.
The main critique to the federal government is that FEMA didn't respond fast enough, and hasn't done enough yet.
It takes time to find survivors. When there is no phone or internet, communication is difficult for the survivors to contact the outside world.
Yet FEMA has already doled out 758 million to 364,000 people affected by the storm as of yesterday.
I have no doubt in mind that things could have been handled better. They usually can. However, I don't think this has been as huge of a snafu as the political pundits may have wanted you to think.
It will take time to see.
The good news is that they are now saying all the original estimates for death tolls may have been quite high. In Louisana, they have only found like 124 bodies, and they are saying it is very unlikely we'll reach 10,000.