According to mainstream media (ie the network news last night) the public is NOT buying it.

It doesn't matter what the bureaucratic rules are to most people in this circumstance. Everyone believes those rules should not have stood in the way of the immediate rescue of people, first off, and secondly of the food and water drops, which everyone knows could have been done the first day by helicopter, to the most crowded locations.

People just aren't believing the Bush machine spin this time. Which is good.