Obama Wants a Detente with Business

Last fall, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon showed White House staff a chart comparing the percentage of Cabinet Secretaries and top aides with business experience under Administrations going back to Teddy Roosevelt. President Barack Obama had the fewest by far. The President's sometime adversarial relationship with business wasn't helped by the departures of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and National Economic Council Chairman Lawrence H. Summers. Exasperated executives often consulted the two aides, even if the lines of communication weren't always clear. "The fundamental problem," says Steve Reinemund, former PepsiCo (PEP) CEO and now dean of the Wake Forest University School of Business, "is the sense the President doesn't consider business a noble profession."

Democrats close to the Administration say the White House wants to make amends and will make its relationship with business a priority after the midterm elections. "I have every expectation as we go through the next several months that we are going to see a greater involvement with business than we have seen in some time," says Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader and an Obama ally.