Obama vows he won't repeat Katrina mistakes

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Barack Obama sought to reassure frustrated New Orleans residents of his commitment to their recovery on Thursday on his first presidential trip to a city still struggling to rebuild four years after Hurricane Katrina.

Flying in for a close-up look at the reconstruction effort, Obama promised his administration would prevent a repeat of the Bush administration's botched hurricane response that left many people in New Orleans feeling abandoned. But he came under fire from some residents upset about low federal reimbursements.

"There are all sorts of complications between the state, the city and the Feds in making assessments on the damages," Obama told a man who questioned him at a town hall-style meeting.

"Now I wish I could just write a check -- you say why not? -- well, you know, there's this whole thing about the Constitution and Congress," he added. "One of the interesting things you find out about being president is everybody will attack you for spending money unless you're spending it on them."

Obama said New Orleans had suffered not only a disaster of nature in August 2005 but a "breakdown of government" and he vowed to do more to help the city and the rest of the battered U.S. Gulf Coast get back on its feet.

"We are committed to making sure that a disaster like Katrina does not happen again," he told a cheering crowd at the meeting at the University of New Orleans.

"We will not forget about New Orleans," Obama said. "We will rebuild it stronger than before."

Unprompted, the president addressed criticism that he has few accomplishments to date in his nine months in office, saying change is hard but "I don't quit. I'm not tired, I'm just getting started."

As his motorcade wound its way through New Orleans, a historic city famed for its annual Mardi Gras revelry, Obama found stark reminders of how much work remains.

He saw many homes still boarded-up and others under repair. There were cheering crowds along the road holding "Thank you" placards aloft, while a billboard-like sign on one lawn lamented "Still homeless four years after."

Though Obama's team has been credited with improved coordination, many residents remain 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 was spending less than four hours in New Orleans before flying to San Francisco for a Democratic fund-raiser.

U.S. 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."

STAIN ON BUSH'S LEGACY

Bush was widely criticized for the federal government's inept handling of Katrina and its aftermath, which hastened a slide in his popularity and left a stain on his legacy.

The New Orleans recovery effort is among a litany of policy challenges Bush bequeathed to Obama, whose time has been increasingly occupied by an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system and a strategy review of the war in Afghanistan.

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 disaster funds 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.

Of the city's pre-Katrina 455,000 inhabitants, more than 140,000 -- disproportionately lower-income African Americans --

have yet to return, and it is expected that many never will.

(Additional reporting by Kathy Finn in New Orleans; Editing by Philip Barbara)