Instead, President Obama has spent too much time demonizing Wall Street and traveling the country to engage in counterproductive politicking, said the founder of a company that has done some of the world's largest hotel and hospitality deals over the past 20 years.

Sternlicht said the nation's corporate heads feel shut out by a president who on Tuesday gave a blistering speech in which he cited "breathtaking greed in the financial industry" and faulted Republicans for following "you're on your own" economics.

"I think he's got the wrong message," Sternlicht said. "I don't think that's the way this country's supposed to be functioning. You know, a very famous bank executive said, 'If Obama asked us to help him we would help him.' Instead he acts like we cheated."

Two specific areas he said need help are education and jobs.

The nation's unemployment rate in November slipped to 8.6 percent from 9.0 percent. But the drop was due largely to a decrease in those actually looking for jobs, while the average duration of unemployment surged to a record-high 41 weeks and wage growth remained stagnant.

In its attempts to improve education and cut the jobless rate, Washington has been too focused on providing benefits for those who don't work instead of getting them back on the job, Sternlicht said.