The Anti-Business Obama

Most on the political right, have always seen Obama as an anti-business President. But, now, there is a growing chorus on the left that is beginning to come to that very same realization.

In recent weeks, several of his well-known supporters have taken aim at his business-busting policies.

First, it was Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric and a member of the President's council of economic advisers. In an interview, he quipped that Obama "doesn't like business" (Click here to See Story: Report: GE chief slams China, Obama). This was quite a statement from a business leader who is supposedly one of his close advisers.

Then, at the Aspen Idea Festival, Mort Zuckerman, a billionaire and owner of the New York Daily News and Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. News & World Report, said this about Obama: "hostility to the very kinds of [business] culture that have made this the great country that it is and was." He further said: "We are, without question, in a period of decline, particularly in the business world." Hearing those words you have to take into consideration the fact that Zuckerman has said he voted for Obama and even wrote one of his speeches that was given at a business forum.

At the same Aspen gathering, another friend of the President's, Nial Ferguson, a Harvard Professor, said this: "If you’re asking if the United States is about to become a socialist state, I’d say it’s actually about to become a European state, with the expansiveness of the welfare system and the progressive tax system like what we’ve already experienced in Western Europe." Then, he went on to further disparage Obama with this comment: "Long-term unemployment is at an all-time high in the United States, and it is a direct consequence of a misconceived public policy.”

Then, in a more generalized view of the administration's anti-business and anti-capitalist posture, 55% of respondents in a recent Democracy Corps poll (conducted by Democrats James Carville and Stan Greenberg) said that Obama is a socialist.

Not everyone may be attuned to all the nuances of capitalism versus socialism; but, most clearly understand when someone is anti-business. The above examples show that these current suspicions are being profoundly felt -- from business experts to the average man on the street. And, the current condition of the economy just strengthens the belief that Obama is anti-business.