Romney: Obama running "just to hang on to power"

(CBS News) The back-and-forth on who is running a nastier presidential campaign continued Wednesday, with Republican candidate Mitt Romney saying that President Barack Obama was running "just to hang on to power" and has based his campaign on "division and attack and hatred."

Romney spoke on "CBS This Morning" in his first solo interview since announcing Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential pick. His comments come a day after Vice President Joe Biden told a Virginia crowd that Romney wanted to "unchain" Wall Street banks and "put you all back in chains" - rhetoric that the Romney campaign jumped on as "outrageous" and "new low" for the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign characterized the response as "faux outrage" and said Romney campaign appeared "unhinged." Biden later shot back, saying "If you want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies."

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When asked about the "unhinged" charge, Romney chuckled and said he had been "very measured."

"I could be much more dramatic, I think. I think hinged would have to characterize what we've seen from the president's campaign," he said.

Referring specifically to Biden's comments, and his underlying message that Republicans wanted to allow banks greater leeway in terms of regulation, Romney said that "of course we have to have regulation on Wall Street and on every street to make sure that our economy works well so it's factually inaccurate to begin with. Secondly, I just say that comments of this nature sink the White House just a little lower."

"No one is talking about deregulating Wall Street and no one is talking about the kinds of languages this White House is bringing forward. Instead, we're talking about what [it is] going to take to get the economy going and put people back to work."