Obama in New Orleans to inspect recovery 

Source: ReutersBarack Obama

Barack Obama made his first presidential visit to New Orleans seeking to reassure residents of his commitment to the city's recovery four years after the Bush administration's botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

Flying in for a close-up look at the rebuilding process, Obama was expected to see signs of progress but also stark reminders of how much remains to be done to get New Orleans, once a thriving tourist destination, back in full swing.

Former President George W Bush was widely criticised for the federal government's slow emergency response to Katrina, which hastened a slide in his popularity and left a stain on his presidential legacy.

Soon after taking office in January, Obama vowed to prevent a repeat of the previous administration's "failures" and to do more to help New Orleans and the rest of the battered US Gulf Coast rebuild.

Though Obama's team is credited with improved coordination and aid flow, some residents remained frustrated with an uneven recovery. Tourist spots like the French Quarter are rebounding while hard-hit low-income areas continue to struggle.

There was also grumbling about the brevity of Obama's visit - he planned to spend less than four hours in New Orleans before flying to San Francisco for a Democratic fundraiser. US Representative Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, dismissed the presidential tour as a "drive-through daiquiri summit."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted the president should not be judged on the amount of time he spent in New Orleans but on the "tangible improvements in the rebuilding and in the lives of people that stayed there."

"We haven't just made promises, we've delivered," he said.

The New Orleans and Gulf Coast recovery effort is among a litany of policy challenges Bush bequeathed to Obama, whose time has been increasingly occupied by a healthcare overhaul in Congress and a strategy review for the deteriorating war in Afghanistan.

School visit, town hall meeting

Arriving at Louis Armstrong International Airport, Obama headed for the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School, the only school to reopen in the Lower Ninth Ward, a poor neighborhood where many homes and stores remain boarded up and abandoned.

He also planned to conduct a town hall-style meeting at the University of New Orleans to let residents air their concerns.

When Obama last visited New Orleans as a presidential candidate in early 2008, he pledged to an enthusiastic crowd that if elected he would restore their trust in government.

His team made a priority of working to loosen up hundreds of millions of dollars in recovery funds for Louisiana and other Gulf states backlogged under the Bush administration.

Even Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican seen as a potential 2012 presidential candidate, has praised the Democratic administration's approach.

While some residents welcomed the presidential visit for renewed focus on their problems, others said what really mattered was action.

"Obama's got a lot on his hands," said Gertrude Leblanc, whose home of 40 years was destroyed by Katrina and rebuilt with church donations. "I hope they will speed things up. A lot of people want to come back home, but they can't."

More than 140,000 of the city's pre-Katrina 455,000 inhabitants have yet to return and it is expected that many never will.

Nine months into his term, Obama is mindful of the political stakes.

Bush was seen as out of touch with the situation when Katrina struck in August 2005, flooding 80% of New Orleans, killing 1,500 people and causing more than $80 billion in damage.

Bush's oft-ridiculed remark to then-disaster chief Michael Brown, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," came to symbolize his administration's bungled response.