In a September 7 article by staff writer Dan Balz, The Washington Post reported that Americans are “dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment” of President Bush's and the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina, which Balz called the “opposite” of the reaction of “national unity” Americans had to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But in concluding that assessments of the administration's performance were largely based on political affiliation, Balz relied on a flawed Post/ABC News poll and ignored other polling data suggesting that independents -- and possibly even Republicans -- are critical of Bush's response to the natural disaster.

Balz wrote that the September 2 Post/ABC News poll “illustrates the point vividly” that reactions to Bush's handling of Katrina divide along partisan lines because "[j]ust 17 percent of Democrats said they approved of the way Bush was handling the Katrina crisis while 74 percent of Republicans said they approved." The poll also found that 48 percent of independents disapprove of Bush's response to Katrina, compared with 44 percent who approve. But as Media Matters for America has noted, the Post/ABC News poll is flawed because its sample size was small, producing an increased margin of error, and its results were also potentially skewed because it was taken on the Friday evening of a national holiday weekend, likely altering the demographics of its respondents.

Further, Balz failed to address other polls indicating that independents -- and perhaps even Republicans -- are critical of Bush's handling of Katrina. While a September 5-6 CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey showed that self-described Republicans are supportive of Bush's response to the hurricane and Democrats are highly critical, the poll also showed that 47 percent of independents give Bush a negative rating for handling Katrina, compared with 29 percent who give him a positive rating. Although the question was not specifically about Bush, a September 2-3 Rasmussen Reports poll found that even among Republicans, 51 percent say the federal government's response to the hurricane has been “fair or poor,” compared with 47 percent who say it has been “good or excellent.”

From Balz's September 7 Post article, headlined "For Bush, a Deepening Divide; Katrina Crisis Brings No Repeat of 9/11 Bipartisanship":

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans came together in grief and resolve, rallying behind President Bush in an extraordinary show of national unity. But when Hurricane Katrina hit last week, the opposite occurred, with Americans dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment of the president's and the federal government's response.

The starkly different verdicts on Bush's stewardship of the two biggest crises of his presidency underscore the deepening polarization of the electorate that has occurred on his watch. This gaping divide has left the president with no reservoir of good will among his political opponents at a critical moment of national need and has touched off a fresh debate about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.

To his critics, Bush is now reaping what he has sown. Their case against him goes as follows: Facing a divided nation, the president has eschewed unity in both his governing strategy and his political blueprint. These opponents argue that he has favored confrontation over conciliation with the Democrats while favoring a set of policies aimed at deepening support among his conservative base at the expense of ideas that might produce bipartisan consensus and broader approval among the voters. His allies and advisers, while acknowledging that polarization has worsened during the past five years, say the opposition party bears the brunt of responsibility. Democrats, by this reckoning, have rebuffed Bush's efforts at bipartisanship, put up a wall to ideas that once enjoyed some support on their side, and, even in the current crisis along the Gulf Coast, are seeking to score political points rather than joining hands with the president to speed the recovery and relief to the victims.

Wherever reality lies between these mutual recriminations, the path from post-9/11 unity to the rancor and finger-pointing in the aftermath of Katrina's fury charts a clear deterioration in political consensus in the United States and a growing willingness to interpret events through a partisan prism. It is a problem that now appears destined to follow Bush through the final years of his presidency -- a clear failure of his 2000 campaign promise to be a “uniter, not a divider.”

A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken last Friday illustrates the point vividly. Just 17 percent of Democrats said they approved of the way Bush was handling the Katrina crisis while 74 percent of Republicans said they approved. About two in three Republicans rated the federal government's response as good or excellent, while two in three Democrats rated it not so good or poor.