Obama smoozes with business leaders

Robert Novak:

SEN. Barack Obama has been meeting secretly with heavy-industry CEOs in Washington to discuss is sues that he would face as president.

On the campaign trail, Obama has been highly critical of corporate executives and promised them nothing but tougher regulation and higher taxes. But the unannounced, small evening sessions with them since he clinched the Democratic nomination have been nonconfrontational and cordial.

Obama scheduled the meetings without any hopes of winning the captains of industry over from Sen. John McCain, but to show them they would be able to do business with him in the White House and that the president's door would be open to the corporate leaders. Their consensus was that he has largely succeeded in that purpose.

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Novak mentioned this in his remarks last night as the dinner speaker for the Right Online conference. I am not sure why there is an assumption that these guys will support the Republicans. Many of them have been big Democrat donors, although it may be just part of their protection racket.

It is hard to beleive that they should expect anything but a disaster from Democrats. Obama is going to damage the export market with his position on trade. He is going to make the price of labor more expensive with his support of the goofy labor proposals of the unions and teh minimum wages hikes that have already driven up unemployment.

BTW, I really enjoyed Novak's speech. He started out by explaining all the reasons why the Democrats should be favored then explained how they had managed to nominate a candiate who could lose. He is still pretty pessimistic about Congress. One thing he did not mention is the energy issue and I think it could still be the real wild card in this election. The Democrats are dead wrong on the issue and are on teh otherside of the voters. If voters also realized that Democrats are on the wrong side of them on taxes and the war, the GOP might be able to turn things around, but they definitely have some work to do.

The big three issues for the Republicans should be energy, taxes and the war. Many still do not realize how out of touch Democrats are on the war in Iraq. Only 30 percent support Obama's rigid timelines. sixty percent of voters disagree with Obama's position on taxes and energy. This is a fight we should be able to win if we are smart.