John McCain is the hands-down preference for president among corporate chief executives, according to a recent survey by Chief Executive magazine. 

Barack Obama fared miserably in the survey which showed a 4 to 1 preference for the Arizona senator.

In fact, 74 percent of the 751 CEOs surveyed believed Obama would be a disaster for the country.

McCain didn't get overall high marks, however. According to the survey, McCain rates only a B minus grade. He got high marks for foreign policy and defense, but only a C plus on energy, education and environment.

Obama got an overall C minus grade with his tax proposals drawing the most doubt. Economics, foreign and defense policies all ranked D plus. Obama got his best marks, C plusses, in environment and education. Energy got a C minus.

CEO surveys can be fickle, however. I used to be a contributing editor at CEO magazine and I once did a cover story back in 2005 about the Bush Administration’s handling of economy. Many of the same CEOs, in a survey we did, gave Bush only a C minus even though the CEOs liked his tax cuts. Bush was criticized for his trade policies, cutting research and development spending and lack of understanding of business policies.

I also interviewed Richmonder and former CSX chief John Snow, then Treasury Secretary, for that story. Unfortunately, he was taking a lot of criticism for being too much of a nice guy for the job. One can’t say that about Henry “Hank” Paulson, his successor. But Snow did raise some warnings about economic trends that have come true.