Steve Jobs: Obama's focus on excuses "infuriated" him

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and President Obama

/ Getty Images

UPDATED 11:40 a.m. ET

Steve Jobs told President Obama that he was "headed for a one-term presidency" if he did not adopt more business friendly policies, according to a biography of the legendary Apple CEO to be released Monday. He even offered his assistance to avoid that outcome.

Jobs met the president in in the fall of 2010 and later offered to help make political advertisements for his re-election campaign. The book, based on interviews with Jobs, says the Apple CEO hoped the ads would do for Mr. Obama what the famous "morning in America" ads did for Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide re-election victory over Walter Mondale.

"I think political advertising is terrible. I'd love to get Lee Clow out of retirement, and we can come up with great commercial for him," Jobs told Walter Isaacson, author the forthcoming biography "Steve Jobs." Clow is the ad executive partially responsible for Apple's famous 1984 advertisement launching the Macintosh.

Isaacson's book is being published by Simon & Schuster Inc, which is owned by CBS Corporation, the parent company of CBS News and CBSNews.com. CBSNews.com obtained a copy of the book. Isaacson will appear on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday to promote it.

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Jobs told Isaacson he was not impressed with the president after their meeting, in part because of Mr. Obama's focus on what is not possible, rather than what is possible.

"The president is very smart. But he kept explaining to us reasons why things can't get done," Jobs told Isaacson. "It infuriates me."

Jobs told Obama that American regulations make it more difficult for Apple to build its products cheaply in the United States compared to the cost of building them in China. Chinese health and safety standards are more lax than the United States.

Jobs almost missed the San Francisco meeting last year because he initially refused to attend unless the president himself invited Jobs.

Jobs also slammed the U.S. educational system as "crippled by union work rules." He proposed longer school days - until 6 p.m. - and a longer school year - 11 months.

The Apple founder's legendary attention to detail emerged as they planned the dinner, hosted by a small group of tech executives at a hotel near the San Francisco airport. Jobs did not want to serve a chocolate truffle cream pie for dessert, arguing that the meal was too fancy. The White House event planners overruled him and the cream pies, a favorite of Mr. Obama's, were served, according to the book.

[johntlofty]

Men like Steve Jobs know it's not the size of the pie that matters, it's the size of one's slice.

The factory workers in China who are making Apple's products get about $300 a month in wages. This is AFTER pay was recently doubled because a couple of employees committed suicide. The safety & health environment in Chinese factories is horrible. They are the sweatshops that American unions managed to eradicate in the early part of the 20th century. So, Steve Jobs would have been happy to employ Americans, if only he could pay & treat them like his Chinese employees. This passes for genius in conservative circles...

[obiwan1250]

I liked Steve Jobs well enough. There is a lot to respect about what he did for Apple, and the personal computer revolution. But I'd have to say that it's a good thing he mostly stayed out of politics.

gep1955 - you're obviously seeing this country from a totally different perspective than I. Obama has done more to help this country in 2.75 years - Osama bin Laden is dead, we're getting out of Iraq, as promised, we have a National Health Care plan which no other President got done in 100 years, passed Lilly Ledbetter, escalated the war in Afghanistan, where our concentration should have been for the last 10 years -- Check out obamaachievements dot org / list

[truthisnice]

I SMELL A POLITICAL OPPORTUNISTIC 'USE A DEAD MAN TO SCORE SOME POINTS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT' GAME HERE, I SAY LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD. STEVE IS NOT THERE TO DISPUTE NOR EXPLAIN IN WHAT CONTEXT HIS REMARKS "MIGHT" HAVE BEEN MADE, SO DON'T DRINK TOO DEEP FROM THE COOL-AID BEING SERVED HERE. REST IN PEACE STEVE.

[tcp53]

Even Jobs KNEW that Urkel was a Marxist putz. Imagine how frustrating it was for a super-achiever like Jobs to know that such an INCOMPETENT man was the POTUS.......

[endrepubs]

Screw you Steve Jobs. I am sick of Apple's excuses for charging so much for its products. Macs and Apple products are a rip off. Obama has about the most business friendly policies in place of any president. He basically extended all of Bush's economic policies and thus extended the recession.

[iPhoney]

Said like a true Marxist loser. Get off yer duff and make something of your life, you might actually get paid enough to buy something nice instead of being jealous of others.

[Noval53]

Obama is a socialist at heart. There is one thing about socialism & money and a fool and his money that are the same. They are soon parted. Creating more unproductive government jobs (union or not) is not the answer either. It will end badly. All fat, bloated, and corrupt governments eventually collapse under their own weight.

[dan_webster]

"...in part because of Mr. Obama's focus on what is not possible, rather than what is possible." This was Mr. "Yes we can!" What happened?? Terrible confusion results when a narcissist with a socialist ideology ("redistribute the wealth") is forced to serve the banking elite-Goldman Sachs, "Federal Reserve", Tim Geithner, and so on.

[gep1955]

Jobs was a capitalist, Obama is a Marxist/socialist. The two don't mix any better than oil & water.

Jobs career is marked by hard work, risk, creativity, success and tools to advance the lives of people all over the world.

Obama's career is marked by lies, blame, deceit, indecision, inaction,(voting present), deflection of responsibilty and golf.

I'm taking note of the headline, "What was Herman Cain like as a CEO"? Why did we not see articles clarifying "What was Barack Obama like as a Community Organizer?

[DeclarationOfIndependence]

gep1955 - Yep! How easy it is to see the jealousy of the cults that don't produce a dang thing to help humanity (never did, never will) lurched on this man because of his brilliance and creative production and OMG because he is not of their cult. Yep, gep, we are getting the pix more than ever now. Even ol' Isaacson can't resist hitting with his shovel. His facial expressions when speaking on talk shows about "Big Bad Jobs" is full of hate and his tone is one of trying to convince people that Jobs was a jerk. Who IS the jerk? Jobs or a man who twisted comments in the book that backstabbed the guy who trusted him to do his biography? Isaacson lost me, can't trust him, and his book on Jobs can stay in the bookstore sections about Deception and Deceivers.

[brendon_carr]

Our media didn't need to examine the question "What was Barack Obama like as a Community Organizer?" because it's an article of faith in the media's community that community organizers are all goodness and light. Just as it is that CEOs are greedy and heartless.

[TimeIsNowfor99]

I send my deepest sympathy to those close to Steve Jobs.

However, Steve Jobs was a bad American with poor ethical standards. He was an elitiest who would sacrifice any principal in the name of profit. He could have built ipods and iPhones in a country where there are fair labor laws. Instead he chose not only China, but factories in China where workers were often fenced in the factory grounds. Suicides were common occurrences at these factories. There is term for this type of labor issue, I believe, and it is called capitalistic enslavement. Free market capitalism is the best the world has seen. However, a few, like Steve Jobs, have decided to pillage the human side of labor in order to icrease their bottom line. When capitalsim was at its height in our country, companies would not have abused employees like they do today. Sadly, Jobs did not have to do this as he had innovation on his side. However, Jobs chose to enslave people in order to budge up the bottom line. Greed is a sickness. People who live in excess are wrong. Jobs was the type of person that American textbooks will one day justly villify. Before you berate me, investigate where all the ipods and iPhones are made and under what conditions. Look at multiple sites to find the truth.

[DeclarationOfIndependence]

Ah the ol' kiss on the cheek. Sticking Jobs with definitions like greed is a sickness and people who live in excess are wrong, and that American Textbooks (you mean the next commie prints) will squash American ingenuity and financial success begs the question. What do you say of Swinging Gates and his buddy Soros? Come on, time IS now. You don't like USA builders using China? Checkout who set it up as the only silk road to success. No, not buying the anti-Jobs push by those angry with his success. Some people can only copy other's inventions OR steal them, and only scratch those not of their clan who are stunningly successful. Scratch elsewhere.

[johntlofty]

Right on! It's easy to understand why Apple chose to manufacture in China. It meant more money for Jobs & the stockholders. American workers don't matter to them.

[noloyalisti]

Jobs was an anti-union zealot who followed the other greedy CEOs outsourcing American manufacturing. So of course he would be mad at Obama, someone who actually cares about America instead of In Money We Trust Steve Jobs.