by Doug Henwood
from LBO Notes


More nuggets from Obama’s interview with the freshly renamed Bloomberg BusinessWeek, now under new management.

The irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business; and then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business…. You would be hard-pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses…. We are pro-growth. We are fierce advocates for a thriving, dynamic free market.

Some scene-setting from the piece:

As Obama defended himself against charges he is isolated from business, a number of CEOs sat outside in the West Wing lobby: General Electric Co.’s Jeffrey Immelt and Honeywell International Inc.’s David Cote were among those waiting for a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and energy coordinator Carol Browner to discuss climate-change policy.

In a separate story, Bloomberg reports that the CEO that Obama most admires is Frederick Smith of FedEx. Smith is a fiendishly anti-union Republican who served as John McCain’s finance chair, and is an old Skull & Bones pal of George W. Bush.

FDR said, maybe not entirely honestly, of the American rich, “I welcome their hatred.” Obama will do or say anything so that they’ll return his love—which, despite all his efforts, isn’t yet forthcoming.