President Obama had a good appearance yesterday before the Business Roundtable, a collection of CEOs from top companies. In his remarks, and particularly in the Q and A, the president sounded like the pragmatic, facts-first leader that drew many non-traditional Democratic supporters to him.

His remarks on cap-and-trade were especially encouraging. While his insistence that a new regime wouldn’t begin to be implemented until 2012 is something of a fig leaf (businesses would have to begin planning for such a giant government revenue increase immediately), he sounded genuinely interested in discussing options for how the plan is implemented. (See the discussion with Weyerhaeuser’s Dan Fulton near the end.)

He made what I think is the correct point — that free carbon credits miss the mark because they don’t actually establish a price for emissions. But he also indicated openness to a framework that is not a “100% auction,” to reduce the upfront cost (or damage) inflicted on businesses, consumers, and the economy.

Regardless of one’s outlook on the issue, the president addressed the CEOs on their terms — as someone ready to negotiate to reach a goal.

In response to Richard Parsons, the new Chairman of Citigroup, President Obama made another important statement (germane to Clark’s post earlier this week) about the expected results of bank stress tests:

[T]he vast majority of banks are going to be doing fine and in a position to make profits. Even with the worst case scenarios — even if things stay bad for a while, the vast majority of these banks are going to be fine.

By the way, depositors are all going to be fine. That’s why we’ve got the FDIC.

An obvious statement to some, but reassuring to many.