Chief Executive magazine has surveyed US CEOs to get their early read on the presidential race already in progress. For starters, the corner office gang identifies strongly with the Republican over the Democratic party by a 54%-33% margin, with 13% calling themselves independent. Looking at the Democratic race, they have determined that the most business-friendly candidate is Barack Obama (D-IL), with Hillary Clinton (D-NY) considered the worst. On the Republican side, they favor Mitt Romney (R-MA) and worry about John McCain (R-AZ). Interestingly, despite their CEO status, asked to name the biggest issue this election, they responded like citizens rather than executive suite business operatives, with 35% picking terror/Iraq as #1 by a wide margin. However, they begin showing their stripes directly afterwards. The second issue was overall tax policy (17%), followed by health care policy (12%), fiscal policy (11%) and energy policy (10%). Rounding out the list are entitlements (9%), trade policy (3%), defense (3%) an education (1%).
