Bill Clinton and Warren Buffett: Business Boosters for Obama

In a sign of the increasingly hostile relationship between the private sector and the Obama administration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday sent an open letter to the president (as well as to Congress and the American people), blasting those in leadership for "taking their eyes off the ball," "neglecting America's number one priority," and "vilifying industries while embarking on an ill-advised course of government expansion, major tax increases, massive deficits and job-destroying regulations."

In sum, the chamber concluded, "Policymakers are needlessly prolonging economic agony" and have "injected tremendous uncertainty into economic decision-making and business planning." Yowch.

The Obama administration was not totally unprepared for the chamber's broadside, however. On Wednesday, it brought out the big guns: Berkshire Hathaway's chairman and chief executive, Warren Buffett, and former President Bill Clinton, both of whom have very healthy ties to the business community. The pair visited President Barack Obama at the White House, where White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Buffett and the president spoke about "everything under the economic sky," including "how to continue to create jobs in this country, how to keep our economy moving forward."

The Chamber of Commerce's poisoned arrows came on the eve of Obama's scheduled trip to Holland, Michigan, on Thursday in the latest iteration of a now-weekly effort to convince the American public that the economy is on the right track by sending the president to the center of the country to tout jobs growth and clean-energy programs. Ahead of his trip, the Department of Energy released a report on Wednesday evening detailing the positive economic impact of Recovery Act investments in advanced batteries and electric vehicles, championing the federal government's partnership with the private sector. "For every dollar of the $2.4 billion in seed money provided through the Recovery Act advanced battery and electric vehicle grants," the report says, "the companies have matched it at minimum dollar for dollar."

The same day, Vice President Joe Biden -- who could at this point be officially designated the president's cheerleader summa cum laude on all things Recovery Act-related -- and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, released another report, this one detailing the economic impact of the Recovery Act. The report says the stimulus is responsible for "2.5 to 3.6 million -- or about 3 million -- jobs" and again underscores a positive public-private sector partnership. "For every government dollar invested in Recovery Act programs designed to leverage outside capital," the report outlines, "private companies and others are co-investing with nearly three times as much outside investment."

But if the White House has aimed to hang an "Everything's Hunky Dory" sign on its relationship with the private sector and the direction of the economy, the American public doesn't seem to be buying in. In numerous polls released this week, public confidence in the president's handling of the recession is tanking. A CBS poll released Tuesday found that 56 percent of Americans believe the stimulus has had no impact on the economy, while an ABC poll said 6 in 10 Americans lacked confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the country. Yowch (part 2).

Faced with the mounting criticism, Obama called in two of the country's maestros of messaging and money, Buffett and Clinton. Press Secretary Gibbs, however, was quick to explain their presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as anything but a coaching session to improve the president's standing in the private sector.

According to Gibbs, it was Buffett who expressed interest in coming to see the president, adding that "you don't turn down the opportunity to talk to Warren Buffett." Gibbs said it was safe to say "they talked about budgets, regulation, taxes, all of those topics." The president also, it should be noted, apparently gave Buffett one of his own ties to replace Buffet's soiled neckwear. (A recession special for Buffett advice? Unclear).

As for Clinton, Gibbs characterized the former president's visit as a meeting to discuss "a Clinton Global Initiative effort at retrofitting large buildings, making them energy efficient, training workers in the skills needed to retrofit and weatherize buildings." (Also in the meeting were chief executives from Bank of America, Honeywell, Centerbridge Partners, Johnson Controls, Hannon Armstrong, and Ameresco.)

When asked whether the president's relationship with the business community was as solid as Clinton's, Gibbs replied: "Yes. Based on the fact that I think we have done a lot to improve the business climate in this country, as evident today by the profit and earnings results that are being released."

For his part, Gibbs was quick to dismiss the Chamber of Commerce attacks as partisan efforts to build GOP steam ahead of this year's midterm elections. "Do I think the Chamber of Commerce is going to spend tens of millions of dollars trying to elect a series of candidates that are different than the candidates that the president is going try to elect?" Gibbs said. "Yes." He then posited, "What's the percentage of money that the Chamber of Commerce donates to Republican candidates on each election cycle? I don't know the number, but my guess [is] that it's above 80 percent."

As to whether the presence of economy swamis Buffett, Clinton and newly named Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jacob Lew would bring better luck to president in his battle to heal the American economy, Gibbs said: "I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that we thought hiring a certain number of people would necessarily bring back the economy. . . . [The] hole is going to take a long time to fill in, and that's what we're working through."