Reuters: Bush tries to move beyond criticism over Katrina

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051011/pl_nm/hurricanes_bush_dc

PASS CHRISTIAN, Mississippi (Reuters) - President George W. Bush pitched in to help with hurricane reconstruction efforts on Tuesday, nearly six weeks after he was blasted for the slow federal response to the disaster.

On his eighth visit to the area hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last month, Bush, wearing a tool belt, hammered nails into boards for a Habitat for Humanity home in Covington, Louisiana, and visited an elementary school in Mississippi that has just reopened.

"It's a sign that out of the rubble here on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi is a rebuilding," Bush said after shaking hands and chatting with about 50 schoolchildren.

After the sluggish response to Katrina, Bush has repeatedly visited the region to show his concern and make sure it was prepared to deal with the second hurricane, Rita. But the fallout from Katrina has taken its toll on his popularity. A CBS News poll last Friday found 52 percent of those surveyed did not approve of Bush's handling of the disaster.

[Skittles]

1. the Katrina response was just so freaking EGREGIOUS

there's really nothing he can do to erase the images in my mind of those poor, desperate people - like the images from 9/11, they will stay with me all the days of my life

[nickyt]

2. with ya, Skittles, 100%. No erasing/fixing/spinning

justifying/scurrying about/flying around/posturing/"hammering" will ever ease the memory of the terror of those days. NFW.

[Skittles]

3. the way I see it, nickyt - I ALREADY despised the SOB

he was my governor for six freaking years before he was installed into the White House - and I tell you, watching that Katrina coverage was THE point when I FINALLY said OK THIS IS WORSE THAN EVEN I EVER IMAGINED - and I knew it was gonna be bad