CEO Summit Charade

Bloomberg News puts a ridiculous spin on Obama's CEO Summit today into the title of its coverage - "Obama Meeting CEOs Shows Business President Who Delivers Gains". All the usual sycophantic CEOs get quoted as to how lovey-dovey they are now are with the President, who now apparently loves business. Of course, crony capitalist poseur Jeff Immelt leads the list, there is, after all, no charade that he will not go along with these days. Of course the truth here is, just as in the tax issue, Obama has his back to the wall and is doing this because he has to, not because he wants to. At least Bloomberg gives some nod to the many CEOs who see through the charade. Mort Zuckerman sums it up nicely, "The president's relationship with the business community has not improved" and Ivan Seidenberg delivers the delicious backhand compliment, praising Obama for "a willingness to learn." Translation: the dumb ass is finally coming around. (And if you know anything about Seidenberg, you that that is exactly what he is thinking.)

UPDATE: This was Obama's entire purpose in hosting this event, he wanted to say it so he can refer back and say he said it in order to combat the (truthful) accusation that he is anti-business. The other soundbite from the CEO Summit was that Obama...get this...wants ideas. He's two years in to his term, we were led to believe he has Buffett and Volcker at his beck and call, his entire (clueless) economic team has turned over, but he wants ideas??? My Bullshit Meter is beyond redlining. He doesn't want ideas. He wants to deflect this kind of stuff.

and a footnote...how lame are Eric Schmidt and David Cote? These guys are always at every damn Obama publicity stunt and they've probably been to a zillion meetings that we don't know about. Do they still have real, constructive ideas to give Obama that they have not yet shared with him? Puhleeze. They are the last two remaining O-Bots left in the Fortune 500. Note that Jim Owens of Caterpillar was not there, he clearly won't let himself be a tool of Obama again.

UPPDATE: The Daily caller has the honest take.