Americans favoring regulators in chief seen in history for Obama

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Mitt Romney urged voters to reject President Barack Obama and his “job-killing” regulations. Obama’s victory last week shows many Americans aren’t as reflexively anti-Washington as Romney expected.

In fact, presidents through history who aggressively used the tools of government at their disposal have won favor, and re-election.

“The idea that there simply was a deference to private property and individual rights is one of these American myths,” said William Novak, a University of Michigan law professor who has written on regulatory history.

From Democrat Franklin Roosevelt to Republican Richard Nixon, leaders who imposed federal limits on monopolists, polluters and Wall Street have won re-election sometimes with resounding margins....