President Obama is not only starting to cite Mitt Romney by name, he is seeking to link his likely Republican opponent to at least two things.

One, the Republican budget developed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Two, the word "marvelous."

Telling a group of newspaper editors this week that the Ryan budget favors the rich at the expense of the middle class and the poor, Obama said Romney is "very supportive of this new budget, and he even called it 'marvelous' -- which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget."

"It's a word you don't often hear generally," Obama said.

Romney aides pointed out that Obama himself has used the word "marvelous" and said the president is trying to avoid talking about his "failed" record.

Two days later, speaking to donors, Obama again talked about the GOP plans: "A budget that Gov. Romney, who is the front-runner on the Republican side, has embraced, said the budget was marvelous.

"And when you go through this budget," Obama said, "the vision that it portrays is of an America where everybody is fending for themselves, a few are doing very well at the top, and everybody else is struggling to get by."

To the ears of many political analysts, Obama's emphasis on the word "marvelous" is part of their effort to cast Romney, a former businessman as well as governor of Massachusetts, as an out-of-touch, super-rich elitist.

"It's a word you kind of associate with the upper class, and I think that the intention was to tweak Romney for being wealthy and, you know, sort of brought up in the kinds of circles where they would say 'marvelous,'" said Kenneth Sherrill, a Hunter College political scientist, speaking to Reuters.

Romney aides said Obama's attacks are a way to divert voters from the president's record of high unemployment and rising debt.

"Americans are rallying around Gov. Romney and his pro-growth, pro-jobs message, and President Obama knows it," spokesperson Andrea Saul said.