Romney may have had more economic sense but he had no plan save to balance more upon the backs of those he has no understanding of - the middle class and the poor. No transparancy - makes me very very angry. limiting lobbyist power - seems not to be the case. Working across the aisle? I have to give him an A for effort there, he tried. Nor could he manage to avoid politics as usual when his opponents were about the business of politics as usual. Immune to DC? I don't know, maybe he was and that is what caused all the problems. He never invited his opponents over for a beer, picked up the phone, jawed with them, coheresed them, cajoled them, soothed them, supported them or made friends with them. Could be they wouldn'tt allow it, could be he didn't know the ways of things in DC.
Spreading the wealth? that is a misused phrase. When 1 percent has 60 perrcent of everything, a little spreading would be a good thing. Lust for healthcare takeover? My experiences most recently indicate that there is indeed a healthcare takeover - by the insurance companies, government seems to have little to do with it except to enable it even further - THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER of healthcare.
We will never know if Obama would have pushed for increased power but I do know that Bush did, hard, and got a lot of it, handing it to Obama. Signing statements, unitary executive doctrine, preemptive strikes, patriot act.