The gloves are off in the run for the presidency as the race becomes more poisonous, and the Romney campaign begins pounding at Obama's likability.

As Obama finished up his three-day tour of Iowa yesterday, during an outdoor event in Dubuque, he told those gathered to hear him speak there, “They have tried to sell this trickle-down snake oil before, It didn’t work then; it won’t work now.”

Obama also pointed out some of the contrasts of his Medicare plan and the plan of the Romney team. “Here’s what you need to know: I have strengthened Medicare,” Obama said. “My plan has already extended Medicare by more than a decade. Their plan ends Medicare as we know it.”

Romney has attacked Obama for cutting $716 billion from the Medicare program. But, Obama sought to clarify the cuts, saying that the cuts come from doing away with waste and fraud within the program. Obama stated, “I have made reforms that have saved seniors with Medicare hundreds of dollars on their prescription drugs,” he said. “They are just throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks.”

Obama took a moment during the outside rally in Dubuque to put in a few good words for his wife, who the night before appeared on “Tonight with Jay Leno.”

“When I stand here and listen to her, I am reminded how lucky I am, because she is a woman of strength and integrity,” Obama said. “She is the best mom in the world, and she’s cute.”

While in Ohio, Romney said on a stop there there, “Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.” This statement was made in response to Vice President Biden’s remark during a discussion of Wall Street Regulation in Virginia, where Biden said that the GOP’s economic policies would “put y’all back in chains.”

“This president has pushed Republicans and Democrats as far apart as they can go,” Romney said Tuesday night in Chillicothe, Ohio. “And now he and his allies are pushing us all even further apart by dividing us into groups. He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces. If an American president wins that way, we all lose. But he won’t win that way.”

On CBS, Romney charged that Obama’s campaign is “all about division and attack and hatred.” He also asserted that Obama is “running just to hang on to power” and will “do anything” to win re-election.

The Obama campaign said Romney’s comments seemed “unhinged.”

This is a stark difference from the last year that Romney has characterized Obama as a nice guy that just didn’t know how the economy works.

But, it is important for the Romney campaign to address the likability issue, last month’s USA Today/Gallup Poll showed Obama ahead in that arena 60% to Romney’s 30%. Obama also showed a strong lead in honesty and trustworthiness.

It is also important that Romney pushes harder on making Obama look bad when it comes to Healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid. Obama leads Romney by very large margins in the Kaiser Family Foundation Polls that asked those polled who they trusted to do a better job with those programs.