I don't mind that the president went to some staged events. It's not like I expected the president to actually directly help and the Secret Service is going to carefully screen everybody that he sees anyway. The degree to which it was staged was rather tacky, but not unexpected or terribly offensive.
What I do object to was the degree to which the actual disaster relief was stopped to allow for the presidents publicity. Grounding relief helicopters over a large area and redirecting aid so that it would be where the president was goes beyond tacky.
Jay