Of course people blame George W. Bush for some of the terrible mess that followed Hurricane Katrina.

The federal government should have moved faster in the wake of the storm, and the president, in the early days of the hurricane, should have treated it like it was a big deal instead of continuing his working vacation in Crawford, Texas.

But to the dismay of Democrats in Washington, members of the public are not dumping all of the blame on the president.

First, a Washington Post/ABC News poll asked respondents, “How much blame, if any, do you think Bush should get for the problems in the federal response to the situation — a great deal, a good amount, only some or none?”

Thirty-three percent of those polled said “some,” while 22 percent said “none” — meaning 55 percent of those polled did not place a heavy share of the blame at the president’s feet.

On the other side, 23 percent said a “great deal,” and 20 percent said a “good amount” — meaning 43 percent of those polled did blame the president.

Some of the president’s critics complained about the poll. People didn’t put all the blame on Bush? Surely something was wrong.
For example, Media Matters for America, the “progressive” watchdog group, wrote a critique headlined, “Media touted questionable Washington Post/ABC poll to say public opinion of Bush’s hurricane response is mixed.”

Media Matters said the Post polled too few people and the survey was taken during a holiday weekend, when it could not reach a representative sample of Americans.

But then came another poll, this one from Gallup, with a bigger sample size, that was taken, at least in part, during this business week.

And it also showed the public taking a balanced view toward blame for the post-Katrina mess.

Gallup asked, “Who do you think is most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane — George W. Bush, federal agencies, state and local officials, or is no one really to blame?”

Thirteen percent of those polled said Bush was most responsible. Eighteen percent said federal agencies. Twenty-five percent said state and local officials. And 38 percent said no one is really to blame.
Gallup also asked, “Do you think that any of the top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired, or don’t you think so?”

Twenty-nine percent said yes, top officials should be fired. Sixty-three percent said no, they shouldn’t. And 8 percent had no opinion.

All in all, a fairly balanced view.

And why has the public, at least as its opinion was expressed in two polls, shown such common sense when some of Bush’s critics have gone over the top? There are three reasons.

First, everyone saw that Katrina was an unusually powerful — historically powerful — storm that just happened to hit perhaps the nation’s most vulnerable hurricane target. Ninety-three percent of respondents in the Gallup poll said it was the worst natural disaster in the United States in their lifetime.

They realized instinctively that it would have been impossible to get everyone out of New Orleans as the storm approached.

Second, people saw the Louisiana state leadership — specifically Gov. Kathleen Blanco — wringing hands and talking about how overwhelming it all was.

“It’s just totally overwhelming,” Blanco said Aug. 30, as the full extent of the damage became known.

“This whole situation is totally overwhelming,” she said the next day.

Blanco — whose political style relies on appointing commissions, studying problems and taking a long time to make decisions — did not exactly inspire confidence as a leader in a crisis.

Third, people saw New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin sputtering about how “pissed off” he was that help had not come to his city quickly enough — even though he had not followed the detailed New Orleans evacuation plan.

“Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed,” Nagin said Sept. 1.

“I am pissed,” he said later. “I am absolutely pissed off.”

Again, not exactly the portrait of a leader in a crisis.

People put all those factors together and came up with a balanced scorecard. They could see that Bush didn’t appear to take the hurricane seriously in the beginning — why did he stay in Crawford for two days after Katrina struck? — and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was slow off the mark.

But they could also see what was happening in New Orleans, and in Baton Rouge. So they apportioned the blame accordingly.

Now come the investigations. Whoever conducts them, they will, after months of studying, interviewing witnesses and recreating events, most likely come to the same conclusion that the public has reached in just a few days.

Yes, everybody should have done a better job. But the effort to find a single scapegoat — preferably one whose name is George W. Bush — just won’t succeed.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it