After President Obama’s inauguration, his team of advisers updated his Web site and posted his plans to rebuild New Orleans.They refered to the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina as a “catastrophic failure.””President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” his advisers said on the Web site. “The federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”Chuck Fontenot, College Republicans president, said he doesn’t feel calling the response a “catastrophic failure” is correct. Instead, Fontenot said Obama should have acknowledged the mistakes made by Bush and the mistakes made by state and local government.”Hindsight isn’t a solution,” Fontenot said.Kirby Goidel, mass communication and political scienceprofessor, said recovery efforts were not handled effectively.”Katrina was the turning point for Bush,” Goidel said. “He had very high approval ratings before Katrina. Post Sept. 11, people thought Bush would be able to take care of them.”Regina Lawrence, political communication professor, said Bush’s response to Katrina should have been more timely. She said his advisers didn’t understand the extent of the issue.Obama has been paying a lot of attention to New Orleans and the people who were affected by the hurricane. He has already introduced new legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the needs of low-income hurricane victims, according to his Web site.Though Obama is addressing his post-Katrina views online, he only briefly referenced the storm in his inaugural address.”It is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break,” Obama said.Though Obama made promises to New Orleans, some are leery of whether it will be a top priority.”He has many commitments,” Goidel said. “Relative to health care, the economy and other issues, it won’t be a top priority.”Ellis Sandoz, political science professor, said he wonders if Obama will be able to keep all his promises.”We’ll see if this is a top priority,” Sandoz said. “Words are cheap. What actions is he taking?”Fontenot said it would be wise for Obama to rebuild New Orleans.”New Orleans is one of the jewels of the South,” Fontenot said. “He understands the importance of New Orleans not only for the state, but for the entire nation.”Goidel said criticizing the Bush administration on Obama’s Web site was appropriate.”It’s politics,” Goidel said.  “Certainly that’s fair game.”Lawrence said she thinks this was a technical error. She said when his advisers were moving information from the transition Web site, which had many of his campaign platforms, they simply moved the information to the White House site without editing it.”This wasn’t a calculated attempt to defame Bush,” Lawrence said.—-Contact Nichole Oden at [email protected]