Americans were greatly displeased with the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina -- but they like the Obama administration's handling of the BP crisis even less, a new survey suggests. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Poll: Oil response worse than Katrina

More than two-thirds of Americans rate the federal government’s response to the oil spill off the Gulf Coast negatively — topping the number of those who said the same about Hurricane Katrina soon after it hit the region nearly five years ago, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Sixty-nine percent of the 1,004 adults polled nationwide held a negative view of the federal government’s response to the massive spill; only 28 percent gave the government a positive rating.


Two weeks after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the same survey showed 62 percent of Americans held a negative view of the government’s response.

Democrats and Republicans were split in their views of the two disasters.

Asked about the oil spill, 56 percent of Democrats gave the government a negative rating, while 81 percent of Republicans did.

Two weeks after Katrina, 79 percent of Democrats were displeased with the government’s reaction, compared with 41 percent of Republicans.

While the federal government’s response gets low marks in the poll, more Americans were dissatisfied with BP’s attempts to cap the runaway well.

Eighty-one percent gave the giant energy company’s response a negative rating, compared with 16 percent who had a positive view.

Asked whether criminal charges against BP should be pursued, 64 percent said yes and 28 percent said no.

That a majority lean toward criminal charges against BP is likely linked to the 73 percent of respondents who believe “unnecessary risks taken by BP and its drilling partners” were the spill’s cause.

Asked to characterize the spill, 73 percent said it was a “major disaster,” while 25 percent framed it as a “serious problem.”

The telephone survey was conducted June 3-6, with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.