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Starkville, Miss. • Signaling a hunger to step back into the ring, Mitt Romney took aim at Hillary Clinton in a speech here Wednesday and predicted that a nation that he sees as in decline could turn a corner "with the right kind of leadership."

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is actively exploring a third White House run, made clear that his prospective 2016 bid would focus squarely on foreign affairs and poverty — and that Clinton, the heavy favorite for the Democratic nomination, was in his sights.

Declaring that the country must restore economic opportunity for the middle class, Romney asked, "How can Secretary Clinton provide opportunity for all if she doesn't know where the jobs come from in the first place?"

He went on to attack the former secretary of state on foreign affairs, calling her record in the Obama administration "timid" and saying that she "cluelessly pressed a reset button for Russia, which smiled and then invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation. The Middle East and much of North Africa is in chaos."

Adrienne Elrod, spokeswoman for Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton group, responded by saying "Mitt Romney's reckless, inaccurate attacks against Hillary Clinton are laughable."

Romney's evening speech to about 1,000 students and faculty at Mississippi State University comes as he and his political team are preparing for a potential 2016 run. He shied away from revealing his thinking or outlining any plans. When pressed on what he would do differently this time from his last campaign, Romney told his questioner, Amy Tuck, former lieutenant governor, "That's another question I won't answer."

Romney did, however, offer thoughts on how the Republican Party and its eventual nominee could be more successful. He said the party's leaders must close the "gap in communications" with American voters, especially minorities and young people — and not only in the general election, but throughout the primaries as well. He argued that Republican ideas are better for working-class people than Democratic policies, but that the GOP doesn't deliver that message effectively.

"The reason I'm Republican is because I want to help the poor, the middle class," Romney said. "The rich in America, by the way, are fine."

Romney said that President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s "came from a good heart . . . but I'm afraid the policies weren't as good as the heart." But Romney extended some blame to his own party as well.

"Republicans and Democrats have not taken action to actually do the things necessary to restore opportunity in America and make sure the American dream is alive for all Americans," he said.

Romney sounded a call for conservative solutions to "get people out of poverty forever," yet he only offered a few broad ideas. One of his proposals was to incentivize "the permanent commitment of marriage" for young people. He cited a study from the Brookings Institution showing that single people have a much higher likelihood of falling into poverty than those who are married.

Romney has told friends he is determined to run as a more authentic candidate in 2016 than he did in 2012, when he often came across as stilted and overly scripted. On Wednesday night, he seemed unusually comfortable on stage, cracking jokes, some of them self-deprecating, which had his audience in stitches.

Recalling advice he received on the campaign trail in 2012, Romney said that one man told him to "stop shaving and grow stubble to become more sexy." Then he deadpanned, "As if I needed that!" He also recalled that after getting a massage at a Marriott hotel in San Francisco, the masseuse told his aide: "Mr. Romney has strong legs. He's a dancer, is he not?"

Later, Romney joked that he's not thinking of running for president again because of the promise of lucrative speaking fees he could receive after leaving office. "As you've no doubt heard," he said, "I'm already rich."