Barack Obama, Hurricane Katrina | featured news

A speech by Senator Barack Obama that created a stir and faded is now bringing up questions that have long been favorite topics in conservative circles... In the summer of 2007, his campaign for the White House well under way, Senator Barack Obama waded into the minefield of racial politics and accused President George W. Bush of sitting idly by as a “quiet riot” simmered in black communities.

President Obama, who accused the Bush administration of standing by "while a major American city drowns," flew to New Orleans Thursday to hear directly about its 4-year-long struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina.