If ONLY he could do this with Iran.....

[Clio the Leo]

Background...

Rift between Obama and Chamber of Commerce widening
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The White House is moving aggressively to remove the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from its traditional Washington role as the chief representative for big business, the latest sign of a public feud ignited by disagreement over the administration's effort to overhaul the health-care system.

Instead of working through the Chamber, President Obama has reached out to business executives, meeting repeatedly with small groups of CEOs in his private White House dining room. He also has dispatched top aides Valerie Jarrett and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to corporate boardrooms. Since the summer, the three have met with some of the biggest names in the business community, including the heads of IBM, Wal-Mart Stores, Time Warner, Eastman Kodak, Starbucks, Amazon.com and Coca-Cola.

In the process, Obama is attempting to rewrite the rules of the game in Washington, where the Chamber and other business lobbying groups have long held a highly visible, and powerful, place at the intersection of policy and politics.

"The question we have is: Does the Chamber really represent the business community the way they used to?" said Jarrett, the president's chief business liaison. "It seems as though their members are disengaging."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101902176.html

Obama continues attack on Chamber of Commerce
By Dan Eggen and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 11, 2010; 1:08 AM

The White House intensified its attacks Sunday on the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its alleged ties to foreign donors, part of an escalating Democratic effort to link Republican allies with corporate and overseas interests ahead of the November midterm elections.

The chamber adamantly denies that foreign funds are used in its U.S. election efforts, accusing Democrats of orchestrating a speculative smear campaign during a desperate political year.

President Obama, speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, said "the American people deserve to know who is trying to sway their elections" and raised the possibility that foreigners could be funding his opponents.

"You don't know," Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. "It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don't know because they don't have to disclose."

The remarks are part of a volley of recent attacks by Obama and other Democrats on alleged foreign influence within the Republican caucus, whether through support for outsourcing jobs by major U.S. corporations or through overseas money making its way into the coffers of GOP-leaning interest groups.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/10/AR2010101004009.html

Obama to Address U.S. Chamber of Commerce
In a gesture of goodwill following a fractious election season, President Obama has accepted an invitation to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The president will deliver a speech Feb. 7 to members of the nation's largest business federation to "discuss his commitment to growing the economy and making America more competitive, and the importance of working together to create jobs," White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story.

During the election, the chamber facilitated corporate funding for Republican candidates and its president, Tom Donohue, leveled criticisms at Obama over financial reform legislation and the health care law. For his part, Obama attacked the chamber over reports, still unproven, that it was illegally using foreign money to buy pro-GOP ads.

The New York Times pointed out that "Obama's outreach to the group is part of a strategy for the second half of his term of emphasizing business-friendly policies."

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/05/obama-to-address-u-s-chamber-of-commerce/

U.S. Chamber praises Obama's call for infrastructure spending
By Greg Sargent

UPDATE, 2:34 p.m: A source tells me that Chamber president Tom Donohue and AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka are set to put out a joint statement in support of Obama's pitch for more infrastructure investment, which could draw a lot of attention, given the media's love for "strange bedfellows" stories.

UPDATE, 2:44 p.m.: Here's the joint Donohue-Trumka statement:

"America's working families and business community stand united in applauding President Obama's call to create jobs and grow our economy through investment in our nation's infrastructure.
"Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy.

"With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO standing together to support job creation, we hope that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will also join together to build America's infrastructure."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/01/us_chamber_endorses_obamas_cal.html