Obama, business try for 'new beginning'

The country's top CEOs emerged from an almost five-hour meeting with President Obama on Wednesday saying that the two sides put acrimony behind them.

Obama has long been criticized as being anti-business — a charge the White House has vigorously disputed — and Wednesday's meeting at the Blair House gave Obama and business leaders a chance to get on the same page.

The president said after the meeting that he and CEOs "focused on jobs and investment, and they feel optimistic that by working together, we can get some of that cash off the sidelines."

CEOs who were in the meeting said afterward that they and the president "wanted to move beyond the tone that created this confrontational environment," according to Boeing President and CEO James McNerney.

McNerney told CNBC after the meeting that Obama and the business leaders had "a lot of frank discussion about that" rift between the White House and business, apologized to one another and moved on to discuss job creation and economic growth.

"We very quickly moved beyond that and we got down to the issues," McNerney said.

McNerney said the president was "very engaged," and that the meeting represents a "new beginning" for the relationship between Obama and business.

The White House said in a readout of the working session that Obama and the CEOs "focused on key areas of opportunity for growing the economy, better preparing our workforce, competing globally and spurring private sector hiring."

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