Romney seeks to undercut Obama's likability lead

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama of running a campaign driven by "division and attack and hatred" — some of his harshest words yet against the president and the latest evidence of a shift in strategy for the Republican candidate.

In a close and increasingly acrimonious race, Romney said in a CBS television interview that he thinks Obama is "running just to hang onto power, and I think he would do anything in his power" to remain in office.

Obama's team, in turn, castigated Romney for the remarks, saying they bore the mark of an "unhinged" campaign.

In recent days, Romney has branched out from his core message of the economy and jobs, the two issues most important to voters amid an anemic recovery from the deepest downturn slump since the Great Depression.

The former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire has spent a year working to sully Obama on that front alone, while casting himself as a credible steward of the economy given his decades in the private sector.

But Romney has now taken to criticizing Obama in biting terms on multiple fronts, an attempt to poke holes in the president in as many places as possible as the clock ticks down on the Republican's chance to gain ground over the Democrat.

The shift comes as national polls show Obama with a slight lead just three months before the November election.

Romney's latest effort: going after Obama's central strength: his likability. The Republican hopes to convince voters that the man who once was the candidate of hope and change — and is now a president most voters still like, even if they don't support his policies — doesn't represent those values any longer.

It's unclear whether Romney can convince voters that Obama is a politician of volcanic anger and ambition. Sometimes called "no-drama Obama," the president has disappointed liberal activists who see him as too dispassionate, meek and willing to compromise on issues such as a government-provided health insurance option.

Some Republican activists say Romney's time would be better spent talking about jobs and the economy, even if Obama has pitted wealthy Americans against the less-wealthy and allowed allies to level harsh charges against Romney.

"He is the most divisive president ever," said Virginia-based Republican Party consultant Mike McKenna. "But he doesn't seem angry, which is why he retains his personal popularity."

Obama, to be sure, is not innocent of the go-for-the-jugular politics.

His team has spent months — and millions — criticizing Romney over his record at the private equity firm Bain Capital and his time as Massachusetts governor. Obama and his allies have lambasted Romney for his refusal to release more than one year and a summary of another year of his personal tax returns. And a super political action committee aligned with the president produced an ad suggesting that Romney was at least partly responsible for the death of a woman whose husband lost a job at a company Bain owned.

Whether by calculation or not, Obama highlighted his most genial side as he campaigned in Iowa, joking with voters about the pleasures of state fair junk food, and joshing with his wife, who made a rare campaign appearance with him.

Closing out a three-day bus journey across the Midwestern state, Obama did not personally respond to the Romney attack, but accused his opponent of "trying to sell this trickle-down snake oil before."

Many business-friendly Republicans maintain that creating a better economic climate for top income earners and big corporations produces benefits that spread downward to lower-income workers.

Obama insists that Romney and his newly named vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, have laid out a program that reprises the economic policies of former President George W. Bush: big tax breaks for the wealthy and plans to cut away the social safety net for older Americans and the needy.

He blamed that economic philosophy for leading the country into recession, saying Republicans were responsible for middle- and low-income wages stagnating or falling since the turn of the century.