From the Associated Press (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington):


WASHINGTON — President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
…

As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."
…

It was the closest Bush has come to publicly finding fault with any federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have sought to fault state and local officials for being unprepared to cope with the disaster.

> more (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington)


It's the first time I can ever recall that this president or anyone in this administration admitting to possibly making a mistake or that something may have not been handled correctly. I hope for his sake and this country's sake that this will be a new trend. He will be a much better man for it.

From the Associated Press (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington):

It's the first time I can ever recall that this president or anyone in this administration admitting to possibly making a mistake or that something may have not been handled correctly. I hope for his sake and this country's sake that this will be a new trend. He will be a much better man for it.
And we will be a better country. Perhaps it can change the tone of right wing politics. Not to say that the tone of left wing politics is any better but they are not the ones running things at the moment.

Never thought I would see this President do such a thing. Makes me mildly hopeful.

From the Associated Press (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_washington):

It's the first time I can ever recall that this president or anyone in this administration admitting to possibly making a mistake or that something may have not been handled correctly. I hope for his sake and this country's sake that this will be a new trend. He will be a much better man for it.
A real man will take responsibility, even if he was in the wrong. He admits that it could have been handled differently, however, I still feel that he should not accept all of the blame. Plus, our president is a very sincere man.

I grant you that he should not accept nor should he shoulder all of the blame. The disaster was big enough and the inept response so profound that there's enough blame to go around aplenty.