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.

I don't want to meme CNN's homepage so I'm linking a different copy of this story. This is important. It means the Administration has acknowledged that the federal response wasn't rapid enough and will work to address the problem going forward. Its the best sort of answer you could expect.

[ And more than I expected, in truth. Just the day before, the administration official line was "It's no one's fault...", while subtly insinuating that, in fact, it was the fault of the mayor and governor. I've got to admit, it's actually refreshing to see the president sac up for this one. You know, a little.

That being said, I'm not certain that the "my bad" will necessarily lead to the administration working to address the problem. I'd like to think it will, but I'll hold off on praise until I see for myself. As someone said in the other thread, if i run over your foot and then say "Sorry, dude, that was me." and then do nothing more, it's a pretty meaningless gesture. -k]

Bush - I am responsible.