Economy drives business into Obama camp

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Long-held bitterness between the U.S. business community and the Democratic Party is disappearing under the weight of the bad economy, analysts say.

With such pro-Republican Party stalwarts as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praising Democratic U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for making business-friendly appointments to his Cabinet, the political equation for business is being turned on its head, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"All the old free-market ideologies are crumbling under the weight of this terrible economy," former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, an Obama supporter, told the Tribune. "Even ardent conservatives are looking to the federal government to rescue Wall Street and Main Street."

Obama's proposal for an economic stimulus package that could total as much as $800 billion is what's driving many formerly staunchly Republican business leaders into the president-elect's corner, observers say.

"He as president-elect will have the same mutual interest as my members do, which is getting this economy out of the condition it is in," Bruce Josten of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the newspaper. "He'll take over the job in what is probably the most fiscally restrained and limited economic landscape of any president, including the time after World War II."