Bush Defends Hurricane Katrina Response

WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush is defending the
government's record in responding to Hurricane Katrina, even while
admitting once more that some things could have been done
differently.
At his last formal news conference, Bush at one point said:
"Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000
people pulled off roofs" not long after the hurricane passed over
the Gulf Coast.
He said it was "a devastating storm" and that hard work
remains to bring New Orleans back to the kind of life people had
before the hurricane that hit in the summer of 2005.
Bush said, "More people need to have their own home there, but
the systems are in place to continue the reconstruction in New
Orleans."

Bush also acknowledged other mistakes or disappointments:
-He said, "Clearly, putting 'Mission Accomplished' on an
aircraft carrier was a mistake." The banner went up shortly after
Saddam Hussein was toppled from power.
-Bush also said that "some of my rhetoric" has been a mistake.
He has been widely criticized for proclaiming "Bring it on!" to
terrorists around the world.
-He said he probably miscalculated in going immediately for an
overhaul of the Social Security program, rather than seeking
immigration reform, in the wake of his re-election to a second term
in 2004.
-Bush also cited his "disappointment" with the revelations of
abuses at the Abu Graib detention camp in Iraq and
in never turning up weapons of mass destruction in the country.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)