Obama's Divisiveness vs. Romney's Optimism

Edward Klein’s book, “Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House,” is No. 1 on the New York Times’ best-seller list. Klein’s book is supported by some 200 interviews, many with insiders who know Obama very well, and it features disconcerting disclosures about one of the most secretive White Houses ever.
Klein, who is a veteran journalist with experience as foreign editor at Newsweek and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, has, in an interview with Newsmax, characterized President Obama as the “most divisive in modern history.”
Klein’s biggest complaint about Obama is that “he promised that he would bring us together….He promised that he would reach out to the other side, the Republican side. Instead, he and his small little group of people in the White House hunkered down, have not reached out, not compromised, making it impossible for Washington to work."
Klein added, “It’s not Republicans who are at fault here, it’s the president, who does not know how to use the leverage of power and his powers of persuasion. He’s the anti-Lyndon Johnson in that he doesn’t know how to get things done. And so he’s been more divisive, more partisan than any president we’ve seen in modern history.”
Now, dear readers, this is really not earth-shattering news, because many experts have been saying for three years that the problem in Washington is not Congress, but the lack of presidential leadership that makes it impossible for compromise to occur so that things can be accomplished.
House Speaker John Boehner said recently that he thought he had a deal early on about the 2011 debt ceiling increase, only to find that after he had sold the deal he made with Obama to his GOP House caucus, the President added deal breakers and soured the House GOP on the possibility of making any deal with him.
I would like to place the reputation President Obama has for being secretive and difficult to deal with alongside Mitt Romney, as seen in the speech he made the night he won the Pennsylvania primary.
It sets a tone that is so far from the pettiness of the Obama message of divide-and-conquer that I hope Romney continues to use it as the cornerstone of his campaign - because it is exactly what America wants and needs to hear and believe if it is to get moving forward again.
Here is Romney's acceptance speech in full - short and to the point. This is what the November election is all about.

“Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.
To all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I've met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you, I have a simple message: Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.
Tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every American who knows in his or her heart that we can do better! The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do, but it's not the best we can do!
There was a time -- not so long ago -- when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. We were Americans. That meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. We knew it without question. And so did the world.
Those days are coming back. That's our destiny.
We believe in America. We believe in ourselves. Our greatest days are still ahead. We are, after all, Americans!”

____Mitt Romney, 24 April 2012