TROY, Mich. - Rick Santorum said President Barack Obama was "a snob" and Mitt Romney was, well, lots of things, and none of them good for conservatives.

Romney countered by rubbing Santorum's kind words for Romney from 2008 in his face, and banging on Santorum for a tough night at Wednesday's debate.

And Romney's wife said she should do the talking from now.

The swipes all took place on the same stage - although not at the same time - before 1,250 conservatives at an Americans for Prosperity Michigan forum today. The attacks exchanged by Santorum and Mitt Romney underscored the closeness of the race in the Michigan GOP presidential primary, set for Tuesday.

Santorum took the stage this morning, and the former Pennsylvania senator accused Romney of "adopting the verbiage of Occupy Wall Street." He said Romney would pay for his tax cuts by "taxing the 1 percent."

Earlier this week, Romney said of reducing some tax deductions: "For high-income folks, we’re going to cut back on that, so that we ensure that the top 1 percent keeps paying the current share they’re paying and more.”

Santorum also ripped Romney for supporting federal emergency loans to banks but not American auto companies. Santorum opposed both.

“If you’re going to bail out one, and you’re going to take care of your friends on Wall Street, and you don’t have a principle against bailouts, how are you going to bail out one and not the other?” Santorum said. “You can criticize me for not supporting the Detroit bailout, I don’t support any bailouts.”

Santorum also said Romney would "give away" the issue of health care to Obama because of the similarities between the federal law Obama championed and the Massachusetts health care law from Romney's tenure as governor there. And finally, Santorum said he said he didn't "blow in the wind when things were popular with the elite," because "I don't come from the elite."

Romney, who took the stage with his wife Ann after lunch, pushed back on Santorum.

"I can attest for my conservative credentials by quoting someone who endorsed me during my 2008 campaign," the former Massachusetts governor said. "Senator Santorum was kind of enough to say on the Laura Ingraham show, he said Mitt Romney, this is a guy who’s really conservative and who we can trust. And when he came out and endorsed me he said these words. He said he is the clear conservative candidate. He’s right. I’m the conservative and what we need in the White House is principled, conservative leadership and I’ll bring it."

Romney also blasted Santorum for having to explain votes in the Senate that didn't mesh with his professed conservative values, and hit him for his "take one for the team" reference to voting for Republican President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

"This taking one for the team, that's business as usual in Washington," Romney said.

Both GOP frontrunners were critical of Obama, but Santorum's blast was surely the loudest.

"President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob," Santorum said.

Ann Romney addressed the crowd for a few minutes, and after drawing rounds of laughter and applause said "maybe I should just do all the talking and let him stand here."

"I’ve also decided no more debates," she said. "If we’re going to do another debate, he’s going to sit in the audience and watch me."