The red-meat talk show hosts gather guffaws with jabs that President Barack Obama is a socialist -- aided in no small measure by then-candidate Obama's desire to be a redistributor of wealth. A few blocks from the White House, a captain of industry, a big cheese of capitalism, was asked Friday about what the far right keeps suggesting: Is Obama a socialist, and is this a good way for the right to campaign against him?

"No, and no," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most muscular of business lobbies.

Speaking to reporters at a lunch put on by the Christian Science Monitor, Donohue said running a negative campaign won't sway voters to support our free enterprise system, suggesting the talk show crowd is making his job more difficult.

As to the socialist question, Donohue was not bashful: "I don’t believe that president Obama is a socialist. I believe he is a populist. I believe he is learning. He is drinking out of a fire hydrant on international affairs, which are getting very complicated. He figured out on the trade deal some of the things he was going to advance that that would to be a problem. He's been somewhat moderate on the big debates on the union issues. I believe he wants to be a successful president, we want him to be a successful president. This country and this time needs a successful president."

Donohue, who has seen administrations come and go, said he differs with Obama on the specifics of health care and environmental legislation. But he warned against trivializing politics.

"I think we should be very, very careful about putting labels on people. I would hope from year to year, you learn something, you get smarter, you adjust your views And I believe this is a real smart guy."

In other words, if Obama is a secret socialist, the chamber is confident he can be brought around.