There is no doubt that the local government made mistakes concerning Katrina, and re-election will tell us what their voters think about their leadership. But I think what was stated at the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing pretty much proves that Mike Brown was not capable of handling the Federal EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Agency:

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official in New Orleans sent a dire e-mail to Director Michael Brown saying victims had no food and were dying.
No response came from Brown. Instead, less than three hours later, an aide to Brown sent an e-mail saying her boss wanted to go on a television program that night — after needing at least an hour to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, restaurant. Continued . . .