In Depth February 10, 2010, 11:10PM EST

Obama's Corporate Messaging

In a wide-ranging Oval Office interview, President Barack Obama takes aim at the perception that he and his Administration are anti-business

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Obama: "We want and need more input from the corporate community" Photograph by Marco Grob

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Two things troubled President Barack Obama as he greeted Bloomberg BusinessWeek on Feb. 9 for a wide-ranging interview in the Oval Office. First was the snowstorm that had crippled Washington. "I can't believe I have to shut down the federal government for a week for this," said the President, gazing outside in mock condescension before reminiscing about his years in Chicago, a city that takes heavy weather in stride. Obama's second concern is more frustrating and far less likely to melt away: the impression that his Administration—and he personally—is anti-business.

At least on this day, business and the economy topped Obama's agenda. Twenty steps from the Oval Office, GE's (GE) Jeff Immelt, Honeywell's (HON) David Cote, and several other CEOs huddled with White House officials to provide industry input on climate change. With his economic council waiting outside, Obama repeatedly expressed his disappointment that policies he believes are overwhelmingly pro-business have been misunderstood. Obama even had a staffer send a follow-up e-mail to a question about CEOs he admires with additional names, including Cote, Verizon's (VZ) Ivan Seidenberg, and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers.

What follows are excerpts of Obama's conversation with Bloomberg News White House Correspondent Julianna Goldman, Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett, Executive Editor Albert Hunt, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek Editor Josh Tyrangiel.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek

There is a sense that the Administration is perceived as anti-business. Why?

President Obama

I think that is a good question, because if you actually look at our policies, everything that we have done over the last year, and everything we intend to do over the next several years, I think is going to put American business on a stronger footing.

Look, I came in with the worst economic crisis and financial crisis we have had since the 1930s, significantly worse than what we saw in the 1980s. And the steps that we took were designed to break the back of the recession, put a floor under the economy, and reduce a sense of panic that had grown. And I think we have done that very successfully. We had an economy that was contracting by 6%. It is now growing by 6%. We had a market that people had no idea where it would bottom out, and that market has now stabilized. We had a banking system that was on the verge of meltdown that now is showing significant health, at least in terms of their bottom lines. And so the steps we have taken, I think, has created an environment in which businesses can be profitable.

And yet, that perception seems to still be out there.
Yes. I think that part of what has happened is that during the course of the year, the frustrations expressed toward the behavior of some of the biggest banks on Wall Street—a frustration that was not unique to my Administration but is widely shared across the country—in the minds of a lot of business leaders was viewed as anti-business rhetoric. And I think that part of what also happened was that there were some big issues like health reform, like energy, like financial regulatory reform, in which you have got some pretty significant, well-funded industry interest groups who are adamantly opposed. And they have got a lot of sway within the business community.