Former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney offered a sweeping preview of his message for his all-but-announced 2012 presidential run Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In a speech designed to paint him as a credible general election challenger to President Obama, Romney went after the president right off the bat, lambasting his attempts to shake up his staff and embrace centrism as merely cosmetic.

"Make no mistake: What we are watching is not Brave New World; what we're watching is Groundhog Day!" he said to laughs in the crowd.

His speech was sprinkled with snarky comments to suggest that as president of the United States, Obama has been out of his league.

Romney denigrated Obama for promising that the unemployment rate would stay below 8 percent and then volunteering that it could be worse.

"It could be worse? This is the leader of the free world's answer to the greatest job loss since the Great Depression?" he asked. "What's next? Let them eat cake?"

He went on, sniping Obama, "Oh, excuse me. Organic cake."

Romney pointed out that there are more people out of work in the United States than are working in Canada.

"Let me make this very clear. If I decide to run for president, it won't take me two years to wake up to the job crisis threatening America. And I won't be asking Timothy Geithner how the economy works." He added, "I know."

His prepared remarks read "Tim Geithner," but Romney threw in the Timothy to play to the crowd. They also did not include the, "I know."

Romney also greeted Obama's outreach to CEOs with cynicism.

"His idea of conservative economic policy is to invite some corporate CEOs to the White House for an evening of table-talk," he said. "I'm sorry, Mr. President, but that's not a policy. It's a dinner party."

While he employed humor and sarcasm to rip the president, Romney's larger message was that Obama was never ready to lead the nation at home or abroad -- a message he used to hint that he is in fact qualified.

"It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work - it's going to take a new president," he said to cheers.

He also compared Obama to failed presidents of the past, noting that the job fairs and the unemployment lines around the country are Obama's "Hoovervilles," and that the unemployment rate is today's Misery Index. In doing so, he tied himself in a not-so-subtle way to President Reagan, who "hung the Misery Index around Jimmy Carter's neck."

Romney excoriated Obama's approach to the economy, bemoaning his embrace of "liberal social policies" like those in Europe, though he did not once mention the word "Democrat" during his speech. He did not mention Obama during the last quarter of his speech and instead pivoted to pushing his own likely 2012 campaign message, "Believe in America." The slogan, the subtitle of his re-released second book, "No Apology," appeared on bumper stickers and buttons throughout the conference as well as in his Twitter feed.

Romney tweeted to his followers to use the hash tag, "BelieveinUSA," to respond to his speech.

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