By Brett LoGiurato: Subscribe to Brett's RSS feed
November 22, 2011 2:23 PM EST
Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone blasted President Barack Obama Tuesday morning on CNBC, where he was a guest host on "Squawk Box."
Langone, the former director of the New York Stock Exchange and now the chairman of Invemed Associates, defended "businessmen and fat cats," who he feels are being unfairly portrayed as villains in Obama's administration.
"We need leadership. We need cheer leading. We need encouragement," Langone said. "Businessmen and fat cats need to feel like they're doing something good -- not that they're villains and not that they're criminals."
Langone had a problem with almost everything during his guest hosting spot, from Obama to America's attitude toward Wall Street to the quality of public-school education in the United States.
In the "parting shots" segment making its viral round through the Internet, Langone goes on to say that Obama has displayed a lack of leadership as president. He then cites examples of good leaders: David Novak, CEO of Yum! Brands, Frank Blake, chairman and CEO of Home Depot, and some random doctor he thinks is a good leader.
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"Leadership is critical to anything you do in life," Langone said. "I don't know [anything] about taking care of a patient. But when I go down to our medical center and I'm in there, I want those people to know one thing: You're great. You can do better. We're with you. And guess what? They rise to it. They do it.
"This is not leadership. This is politics, frankly, at its worst. Not at its best, but at its worst. And we need to fix it."
Langone said that in order for America to go on the "road to recovery," Obama will not lead after 2012. He advocates Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
This is not the first time Langone has thrown harsh words at Obama. In a July interview with CNBC, he said Obama was "willfully dividing" the country.
"He's not bringing us together," he said in July. "He's petulant. ... Divide us and we all lose. And this has got to stop."
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