Obama, Chamber of Commerce meeting closely watched

The gesture may surprise Americans who recall that Obama, just four months ago, said the group may have used foreign money to air ads attacking Democrats, or that a senior aide called the chamber's political tactics a "threat to our democracy."

And the applause certain to fill the ornate Hall of Flags inside the chamber building might seem jarring given the tens of millions of dollars the group spent to fight Obama's signature health care overhaul and deliver the House majority to the Republicans.

Both sides are eager to show a new era of warm feelings, with the chamber in need of bipartisan bona fides and Obama seeking credibility with centrist voters and corporate donors as he ramps up his re-election campaign.

But today also is likely to show that tensions remain close to the surface.

Obama, even as he calls for cooperation on issues such as revamping the corporate tax code, passing a South Korea free-trade deal and fixing the nation's schools, will reiterate his defense of the new restrictions on insurance companies that make up the core of the health care law that the chamber wants repealed. And he will implore corporations to spend profits that many are stockpiling.

Previewing his chamber remarks in his Saturday radio address, Obama said he will tell company executives that they have an "obligation" to "hire our workers, and pay decent wages, and invest in the future of this nation."

Chamber officials, meanwhile, say they still expect their campaign spending next year to exceed the group's $50 million budget of 2010. They say their organization does not get involved in presidential politics.

If spending follows the 2010 model, however, it will go almost entirely toward helping the GOP extend its House margin and possibly win control of the Senate.

The dynamic was evident last month, when chamber President Thomas Donohue delivered his State of American business address from the same stage where Obama will speak today. Donohue noted a "new tone" from the White House but skewered the health care law and a series of new greenhouse gas limits as bad for business.

Obama's swift moves toward business since his party's deep losses in the November midterms, however symbolic, have opened a door that may have otherwise been shut.

Donohue and other business leaders lauded the appointment, for example, of new Chief of Staff William Daley, a former chamber board member and J.P. Morgan Chase executive.

The Daley appointment followed the December tax deal in which Obama agreed to extend for two years the George W. Bush-era cuts for every income level, including the wealthiest Americans. And last month, Obama ordered a broad review of environmental, health and safety regulations to weed out those that might hinder job creation.

Obama's business outreach has aroused some concern among his allies in the labor movement and other liberals who fear that the president may abandon them in his pursuit of the political center.

This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle