The 2016 notebook includes notes, quotes, and newsworthy tidbits of what potential presidential candidates are doing and have done that could be significant to 2016. It will run occasionally on Fridays on First Read between now and when candidates actually start declaring.

Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is more popular than almost any political figure in Washington over the past four years. And that's exactly why Democrats think Republicans are going so hard after Benghazi.

"It's obvious it's an attempt to embarrass President Obama and embarrass Hillary Clinton," Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told Capitol Hill reporters. He added, “I mean, most everyone knows, if she wants to run for president, she's going to get that nomination.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) made a similar point on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday. "This has been caught up in the 2016 presidential campaign, this effort to go after Hillary Clinton," Durbin said.

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod told MSNBC’s Morning Joe also went there. "I really view the Benghazi flare-up right now as throwing a high hard one at Hillary Clinton to try and dissuade her from running for president," he said.

For his part, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa insisted on Meet the Press Sunday that simply was not the case. "Hillary Clinton's not a target,” Issa said of his committee's investigation.

Still, there was plenty of criticism of the Clinton, the likely 2016 Democratic front-runner if she runs, from others, as First Read noted May 9. Lindsey Graham also this week said if Clinton were “in the military, she wouldn’t be promoted.” And opponents are readying a scandal-filled movie about her life.

Rand Paul, another likely 2016 candidate who told Clinton she should have been fired during questioning, said this on FOX: "It sounds like Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints are all over these talking points. And really her resignation was a beginning, but she never really accepted culpability, and I think she really needs to accept culpability for this disaster.”

Yet Clinton continues to lead in 2016 hypothetical polls. A New England College poll showed her winning a New Hampshire Democratic primary 65%-10% over Vice President Joe Biden.

In that same poll, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Paul were all in a statistical dead heat.

Clinton also beats Rubio in Virginia, 51%-38%.

Clinton is a linchpin in many ways for 2016. Democrats know they have few other choices. Biden cannot be dismissed, but it's not helpful to his cause that he continues to be a punchline for late-night comics.

“Remember in the old days when President Obama's biggest embarrassment was Joe Biden?" quipped Tonight Show host Jay Leno.

Clinton not only leads, but is up by sizable margins over potential GOP rivals. Republicans have to take notice. 

Other 2016 notes:

Speaking of Clinton, by the way, former Michigan Gov.-turned-TV-personality Jennifer Granholm lent her name to a draft Hillary group fundraising email.

Paul hit the op-ed circuit this week, going after President Obama. He went after the president in an one, calling the firing of the IRS acting commissioner “not enough. The executive branch has been aware of this scandal for nearly two years and now, only as a result of massive public pressure, the administration has found a scapegoat.”

He wrote another op-ed Thursday, in which he said, “Lincoln wrote that nearly any man can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man, give him power. I think Mr. Obama has failed that test of power. From the cover-up in Benghazi to letting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) target the Tea Party to First and Fourth Amendment violations in obtaining records from the press, Mr. Obama has shown disregard for the Bill of Rights and his responsibilities as commander in chief.”

Paul, by the way, is going to New Hampshire Monday, headlining the first-ever -- and sold-out -- Liberty Dinner in Concord, N.H. with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. It’s designed to merge factions of the GOP.

McClatchy looked at the preparations Biden has made to run in 2016. His 2012 financial disclosure was released. It showed that he took out a second home loan in two years, this one valued between $100,000 and $250,000. Biden’s net worth is between $239,000 and $867,000. He could have needed the home-equity line for his daughter’s June wedding reception which he hosted at his Delaware home.

And it showed he made virtually nothing -- $0 to $201 -- in book royalties.

Joked Biden during his commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania Monday: “When I did my financial disclosure as Vice President the first time, the Washington Post said ‘It’s probable: no man has assumed the office of Vice President with fewer assets than Joe Biden,’ I hope they were talking financial assets. Then there was all this discussion why I had no money. I’ll tell you why I had no money: four years at Penn, three years of Syracuse, four years at Georgetown, three years at Yale, two years at Tulane, two years at Penn, and now a granddaughter at Penn. … This is a much cheaper way to get a degree.”

Speaking of that commencement speech at Penn, FactCheck.org says he flubbed some details: “Vice President Joe Biden falsely claimed that U.S. workers ‘are three times as productive as any worker in the world.’ He’s not even close. By the standard measure for productivity, American workers ranked third in the world behind Norway and Ireland in 2011.Biden also stated that the U.S. economy is ‘two and a half times bigger than any other in the world.’ That’s close, but still wrong. Last year the U.S. economy was not quite double the size of China’s economy, which is the second largest in the world.” 

And there was the hand-written note Biden sent to a 7-year-old in Wisconsin about guns being able to shoot chocolate: “Dear Myles, I am sorry it took so very long to respond to your letter. I really like your idea. If we had guns that shot chocolate, not only would our country be safer, it would be happier. People love chocolate. You are a good boy, Joe Biden.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s financial disclosure was also filed (but it doesn’t show a net worth). The main source of his income was his $128,000 a year salary with some dividends from stocks.

Jindal, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is calling on President Obama to appoint a special prosecutor in the IRS controversy. Jindal was also in New Hampshire last weekend. "We don't need to be focused on 2016 right now,” he said. “Let's focus on the debate. Let's win the debate.”

Martin O’Malley, who got 0% in the New Hampshire poll, “signed a gun-control bill that is among the country's most sweeping legislative responses to the December mass shooting in Newtown, Conn,” the Baltimore Sun writes. “The law bans the sale of assault-style rifles, including the AR-15 used in the Newtown killing of six educators and 20 first- and second-graders. The law limits gun ownership for people with mental illness, outlaws the sale of high-capacity magazines and establishes the nation's first new handgun licensing scheme in two decades. Maryland will join five other states in requiring such licenses, a move that O'Malley said "will substantially lower gun deaths."

He also signed into law “Maryland's first gas tax increase in 20 years into law on Thursday and announced $1.2 billion in highway and transit projects,” NBC Washington reports. So if you live in Maryland, that means it’ll cost you about 4 cents a gallon more to fill up your tank.

If Clinton doesn’t run, some have floated Kirsten Gillibrand as a potential candidate. She’s taken the lead on a host of family related issues and been out front on military sexual assault cases.

Or could it be Elizabeth Warren, who proposed legislation reducing student-loan rates and she wants the Obama Justice Department to take the big banks to court.

Marco Rubio accused the White House of creating a “culture of intimidation” on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd. He echoed that on FOX: “The president doesn’t have clean hands in this because, as I said yesterday on the floor of the Senate … this administration has created a culture of intimidation.” He added, “These are things you typically see in the Third World from unestablished republics and other places.”

Some conservatives are still hammering him for his pursuit of comprehensive immigration.

Chris Christie was showing Prince Harry around the Jersey Shore. He also went negative despite huge leads in his bid for reelection this year.

Bob McDonnell’s approval “dipped to his lowest job-approval rating in two years,” AP wrote of his 49% rating in Quinnipiac. But “few voters are aware” of the FBI inquiry into his accepting of money from a major donor for his daughter’s wedding.

Meanwhile, Jeb Bush was honored as a “Friend of Armenians.”

Rick Santorum has an op-ed with another heart-tugging story of a child who died.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says that the public will view his older brother, former president George W. Bush, more favorably as time passes. 

"In (my father's) four years as president a lot of amazing accomplishments took place," said Jeb Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush, during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.  "So my guess is that history will be kind to my brother, the further out you get from this and the more people compare his tenure to what's going on now."

The 43rd president has largely stayed out of the spotlight since leaving office. After presiding over broad public discontent over the Iraq War and a flailing economy, George W. Bush left the White House with poor approval ratings and was notably unpopular even within his own party. 

Jeb Bush said he hasn't yet spoken to their famous parents about the idea of his own 2016 run. 

"I don't want to begin the process to think about it until it's the proper time to do so," he said. 

Jeb Bush was interviewed on NBC as a part of a media blitz to promote his new book, 'Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution." 

He has come under fire this week for failing to include a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants in his proposed immigration plan, a turnaround from his previous embrace of that proposal. 

He acknowledged Sunday that he could still back a plan that includes a path to citizenship but said that his book was intended to offer a reform plan that conservatives strongly opposed to "amnesty" could still support. 

"If they can find a way to get to a path to citizenship over the long haul, then I would support that," he said of ongoing bipartisan negotiators on the reform effort. "But this book was written to try to get people that were against reform to be for it.  And it is a place where I think a lot of conservatives should feel comfortable, that there's a way to do this and not violate their principles."

Asked whether or not he thinks he is more likely than his fellow immigration reform advocate and Floridian Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to end up in the Oval Office, Bush poked fun at "addicts" of political journalism. 

"You guys are crack addicts," he told host David Gregory. (He later jokingly corrected that characterization to "heroin addicts.")  "You really are obsessed with all this politics."

In an apparent reversal from his past statements, former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that his immigration reform plan would "fall short" of offering a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the United States -- a key provision being put forward by the bipartisan group leading reform efforts on Capitol Hill.

“Our proposal is a proposal that looks forward, and if we want to create an immigration policy that's going to work, we can't continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration,” Bush said on NBC’s TODAY Show.

Bush -- an outspoken proponent of GOP outreach to Latinos who has previously embraced a path to citizenship -- said that he backs measures to allow illegal immigrants to become residents of the United States if they meet certain criteria. But he argued that the possibility of full citizenship would merely encourage more illegal immigrants to make their way inside the nation’s borders.

“There has to be some difference between people who come here legally and illegally,” he said. “It's just a matter of common sense and a matter of the rule of law. If we're not going to apply the law fairly and consistently, then we're going to have another wave of illegal immigrants coming into the country.”

Related: Jeb Bush: I won't rule out 2016 White House run 'but I won't declare today'

Bush’s rejection of that goal appears to be a turnaround for the possible presidential prospect. In a June 2012 interview with Charlie Rose, he acknowledged that his support for a path to citizenship placed him at odds with many in his party.

“You have to deal with this issue. You can’t ignore it,” he said during that interview. “And so, either a path to citizenship -- which I would support and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives -- or a path to legalization, a path to residency of some kind.”

In a January op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Bush and Clint Bolick, his co-author on a new book about immigration, wrote that opportunities for citizenship strengthen America. 

"America's immigration system should provide opportunities for people who share the country's core values to become citizens, thereby strengthening the nation as have countless immigrants have before them," he said. (In the same op-ed, the pair also wrote that "amnesty promotes illegal immigration.")

Bush's voiced opposition to full citizenship rights also puts the former governor – and brother of former President George W. Bush – to the right of Republican senators like John McCain, Marco Rubio and Jeff Flake, all members of the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Eight” currently tackling immigration reform legislation.

That group’s proposal would offer “probationary legal status” for illegal immigrants who register with the federal government, pass a background check and pay back taxes and fines.  After certain border security criteria are met, those individuals would become eligible to apply for green cards and – eventually – the ability to seek full citizenship.

Bush appeared on the TODAY show to promote his book “Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution,” which hits shelves tomorrow. 

NBC's Mark Murray contributed to this report. 

This story was originally published on Mon Mar 4, 2013 1:18 PM EST

BUSH: “The top spot belonged first to a Bush and then to a Clinton. Now, in a familiar American formula, the National Constitution Center is turning again to a Bush,” the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.

CHRISTIE: “When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie swept through Washington, D.C., on Thursday to lobby for funds to rebuild his state after Hurricane Sandy, he brought along public approval ratings higher than any of the elected officials he met with, including his storm buddy President Obama,” USA Todaywrites, adding, “Recovery from the storm will be the central theme of next year's governor's race, says Rider University political scientist Ben Dworkin. Christie has estimated costs of the storm at close to $40 billion just in New Jersey.”

Christie rejected setting up a state-run health-care exchange. Ironically, he was in DC trying to get money for Sandy relief efforts.

VIRGINIA: NBC’s Richmond affiliate reports: “Yesterday we outlined at length Terry McAuliffe's explanation as to why he chose to open a manufacturing plant for his Green Car company in Mississippi instead of here in Virginia. The plant opened to great fanfare in July and was helping to establish McAuliffe's credentials as a businessman willing to invest in green technology as a long term economic solution. But for McAuliffe, who purchased the Chinese company shortly after losing the democratic primary for governor in 2009, the fact that the plant and it's potential one thousand jobs ended up in Mississippi was a mystery. Especially because McAuliffe never really stopped running for governor. He touted this week that he has attended some 2,400 political events in Virginia over the past four years.”

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, rumored to be mulling a 2016 bid for president, will become chairman of the National Constitution Center, according to a press release from the center.

Bush will succeed former President Bill Clinton as chairman and follow in his father George H.W. Bush's footsteps, who served in the role before Clinton.

Clinton praised Bush's ability to work with supporters "regardless of party" in the release. 

"It has been a great honor to serve as the Center's Board Chairman for the past three years," Clinton said, "and I couldn't be more pleased that Gov. Bush will lead this world-class museum into the future. Gov. Bush will be an eloquent spokesman for the Center's mission and will work well with all of the Center's supporters regardless of party."

TAMPA, FL -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reined in his criticism of President Barack Obama on Wednesday, signaling a softer tone at the outset of a three-stop swing through Florida coinciding with the president's trip to New Jersey to survey hurricane damage.

Returning to the campaign trail after cancelling several campaign events out of respect to victims of Hurricane Sandy, Romney joined several prominent Florida Republicans in blending a pitch for storm recovery support with more traditional political fanfare.

In his first formal campaign event (Romney morphed one planned stop in Ohio into a "relief event" on Tuesday), Romney struck hopeful notes.

"You should know I could not be in this race if I were not an optimist. I believe in the future of this country I know we have huge challenges, but I’m not frightened by them, I’m invigorated by the challenge," Romney told supporters gathered in an airplane hangar here near the close of his remarks. "We’re going to take on these challenges we’re going to overcome them!"

And Romney included an entreaty for donations to the Red Cross as the East Coast reels from the impact of the hurricane earlier this week. (Romney himself made a donation to the Red Cross, an aide told NBC News.)

"If you have an extra dollar or two, send them along and keep the people who are in harms – who have been in harms way, who’ve been damaged either personally or through their property, keep them in your thoughts and prayers," Romney said. "We love all of our fellow citizens.  We come together in times like this and we want to make sure that they have a speedy and quick recovery from their financial and in many cases, personal loss."

Romney was joined on the trail by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the latter of whom noted that Floridians are more familiar with hurricanes than most of the nation, and urged the roughly 2,000 attendees here to pay back the generosity they have experienced after past storms.

"People are going to be living with the aftermath of the storm, and so our hearts and our prayers go out to them, and also our help," Rubio said. "If you see on the screen the number you can text the Red Cross and make your donation. We have been the beneficiary of these donations in the past. Let's make sure we pay it forward for our neighbors and fellow Americans up north who are suffering."

Bush, who had to handle numerous hurricanes during his time as governor, also waded into the politics of disaster relief, suggesting that local governments contributed more to recovery efforts than the federal government.

"My experience in all this emergency response business is that it is the local level and the state level that really matters," he said to applause. "That if they do their job right the federal government part works out pretty good."

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney greets audience members at a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida October 31, 2012.

But today's event was certainly a return to the issues that have driven the campaign for the last year -- with Romney criticizing the president's stewardship of the economy indirectly, and offering his own plan in contrast.

“My view is pretty straight forward and that is I believe that this is time for America to take a different course, that this should be a turning point for our country, and I say that because I look at where we are and with 23 million Americans – you think about that. These are real people. These are folks trying to put food on the table," Romney said. "Twenty-three million people struggling to find a good job. This is something that requires in my view a different path than we’ve been on."

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican elders said Sunday that this week’s Republican National Convention here in Florida offered Mitt Romney an opportunity to re-introduce himself to voters heading into the height of the fall campaign season.

As GOP heavyweights gather in Florida for a hurricane-shortened convention, some of the party’s most influential voices laid out on “Meet the Press” the stakes for Romney.

The convention offered Romney a chance “to reconnect with people,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) of the forthcoming convention.

Convention organizers canceled Monday’s activities due to safety concerns associated with an impending hurricane, leaving Romney and the GOP with one less day to drive its message about what they charge are the failures of President Barack Obama, particularly when it comes to matters of the economy.

But Republicans also acknowledged that Romney must use this national platform to reverse some of the damage done to his personal reputation over the summer. The Obama campaign and Democratic super PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars on television ads in key swing states taking aim at Romney’s private sector career, personal wealth and handling of issues important to women.

Related: McCain: Further delays to GOP convention 'could be harmful'

Exacerbating problems for the Republican brand has been this past week’s uproar over Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s (R) comments about “legitimate rape.” Republicans have sharply distanced themselves from the conservative congressman’s remarks, while Democrats have sought to link those sentiments with Romney and the Republican Party as a whole.

“I'm surprised that we, the Romney-Ryan ticket, are neck and neck in the polls right now particularly with some of the setbacks we have experienced,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee.

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann arrive at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, to attend Sunday services on August 26, 2012.

Recommended: Hurricane impending, Republicans cancel first day of convention

Convention organizers have laid out a daily theme here in Tampa meant to soften Romney’s public image and offer greater insight into his family and charitable work, among other personal details. The convention also revolves heavily around leveling an indictment of Obama’s economic policy during the last four years.

It’s a high-stakes act for Romney; the conventions are regarded as one of the few opportunities to sway undecided voters, whose numbers are dwindling in this especially competitive election.

“This is the big Etch A Sketch moment for Mitt Romney,” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said Sunday of the impending Republican festivities.

But there are also long-term stakes for Republicans this week in Tampa, particularly as it relates to closing the gap among women and Hispanic voters, with whom Obama enjoys a healthy advantage over Romney in the polls.

“My personal view is that we need to move beyond where we are,” Bush said of the current Republican rhetoric on immigration. He said that, on immigration, Republicans must change “not necessarily the core of our beliefs but the tone of our message and the intensity of it.”

But Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), the chief proponent of a tough immigration law in her home state, said Republicans must emphasize “the rule of law.”

She added: “Certainly those kinds of issues are going to have to be discussed moving on into the future.”

Related: Jeb Bush on White House run: 'I'm not there yet in my life'

But Republicans overall stressed the primacy of the economy this election cycle, the issue on which Romney has an advantage over Obama in most polls.

“I think Mitt wins when it's about these big things,” Bush said. “When it's about the constant distractions, it'll be a very, very close race.”

TAMPA, Fla. – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Sunday that he’s “not motivated” to seek the White House and follow in the footsteps of his presidential brother and father.

Bush, whom many Republicans had implored to run for president this year, acknowledged on “Meet the Press” that 2012 would have offered a prime opportunity for him to seek the Republican presidential nomination.

Recommended: GOP elders describe high stakes for Romney in Tampa

But Bush, who had been scheduled to speak here on Monday night of the Republican National Convention before weather forced the cancelation of that day’s activities, would not rule out a future run for president, though he did not seem eager to do so.

“I don't think about it. I'm not motivated by it. It takes an incredible amount of discipline and ambition,” Bush told moderator David Gregory.

“I'm not there yet in my life,” the former Florida governor added.

Recommended: McCain: Further delays to GOP convention 'could be harmful'

Jeb Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, served as president of the United States from 1989-1993, and his brother, George W. Bush, served as president from 2001-2009.

HAMILTON, OH -- In his first public campaign appearance for Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush did not shy away from attacking President Obama, and advanced the presumptive GOP nominee's messaging this week.

“There are a lot of positive reasons to support Mitt Romney but I want to give you a reason that it is important: because the current president of the United States doesn’t get it,” Bush told the crowd inside United Performance Metals. The president “said in Virginia: “If you got a business, you didn’t build that, somebody else made it happen.” Now that was kind of like saying the private sector is doing good but its the economy that is doing bad. These are insights into the thinking of a man who has had no practical experience in creating jobs.”

Campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio Wednesday just hours before Mitt Romney himself appears in the state,  Bush said it is Obama who has created “a morass” and “a dark cloud over our country” that only Romney can help improve.

“I am so tired of the president of United States –- with the awesome seal he gets to go around with -– pointing, trying to create divisions. Trying to punish people rhetorically for the hard work that will restore American’s greatness,” he said.

Bush’s comments come amid a week in which the tone of the presidential campaign has taken a more divisive tone, with harsh words being exchanged between the Obama and Romney campaigns.

Echoing Romney’s comments just yesterday, when the former Massachusetts governor accused Obama of cronyism, Bush called for an end of policies that allow for failed loans that aid companies, like Solyndra.

“Crony capitalism needs to be rejected and eliminated in our country and what we need to do is restore entrepreneurial capitalism where government plays a role but it is a limiting role. And where we celebrate success rather than punishing it,” he said.

Bush, whose name was once included as a possible vice presidential pick for Romney, shed no direct insight on any VP speculation but did predict that two states are vital to the November election:

“There are two states that actually matter a little bit more -– my beloved state of Florida, which is like the purplest of all the states in this election and Ohio. If we do our part in Florida and you do your part in Ohio, I believe Mitt Romney will be the next president of the United States and the restoration of America’s greatness will begin.”

Gov. Bush, a member of the prominent political Bush family, kicked off his speech giving a “Bush family update” to the couple hundred person crowd. The 43rd Governor of Florida said his parents -- former President George H. W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush -- and his older brother -- former President George W. Bush -- are doing “pretty good.”

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Some of Mitt Romney's most deep-pocketed donors will flock to Utah for an exclusive gathering this weekend featuring top Republican political figures and strategists.

More than 100 of the GOP's top fundraisers and bundlers will attend the "First National Romney Victory Leadership Retreat," a weekend-long retreat intended to rally, educate and reward the men and women who have been the primary financial backers of the presumptive nominee's campaign thus far.

The attendees will be treated to presentations, briefing and panel discussions featuring an all-star cast of Republican politicians, including several thought to be among Romney's top vice presidential choices.

Among the possible VP contenders a Romney campaign adviser confirmed would be in attendance are former Govs. Tim Pawlenty (MN) and Jeb Bush (FL), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The GOP's last presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, will also attend, according to Republican sources familiar with the event's schedule.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will speak at one of the weekend's two major dinners, according to a McDonnell staffer.

The Washington Post has reported that Sen. John Thune, Rep. Paul Ryan -- two other rumored VP short-listers will attend, as will Republican power-broker Karl Rove. NBC News has not independently confirmed this information.

"All the major players of the party will be there," Dallas businessman Ray Washburne, who will attend the retreat, told NBC News. "Its kind of a reunion of all the people who worked hard on the campaign so far."

Washburne is indicative of the type of Republican rainmaker the Romney campaign intends to woo, and reward, at the retreat. The real estate developer, investor and restauranteur headed up a recent Romney fundraiser in Dallas that brought in $3.6 million for the campaign, and has co-chaired Romney's fundraising effort in the Lone Star state after the first candidate he supported -- Pawlenty -- dropped out of the race.

The invitees are primarily those donors who have raised enough money to qualify as national finance committee members, one Romney adviser said.

"The party is all falling in behind the candidate now, and this is kind of the first kind of anointment of Mitt by everyone," Washburne said.

On Saturday, attendees will be briefed by top Romney campaign officials, including political director Rich Beeson, and the famously media-averse campaign manager Matt Rhodes, on the state of the campaign and strategy going forward. That night they will also attend the second of two dinners with the candidate himself.

Attendees at the weekend-long retreat will at gather at a resort hotel in the mountains surrounding Salt Lake city, not far from where Romney first rose to prominence by running the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, and in the state where he still retains a rock star-like political status.

Romney and his guests will be far from the prying eyes of most media. The entire three-day conference is closed to the press, and Romney has no public events in Utah to draw reporters here otherwise. His campaign has refused most official requests for comment on the conference, including several made for this report.

When the conference concludes at the end of the weekend, the campaign will continue with one major question -- likely to be discussed all weekend -- that will remain unanswered: Was the vice presidential nominee among those in attendance?

"That's all anybody wants to know," Washburne said.

NBC's Alex Moe contributed.

Earlier this morning, we pointed that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pulled a Cory Booker or Bill Clinton -- going off message when he talked about immigration, taxes, and the state of his party on Monday.

As the New York Times put it:

Mr. Bush questioned the party’s approach to immigration, deficit reduction and partisanship, saying that his father, former President George Bush, and Reagan would struggle with ‘an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.

Going one better, he praised his father’s 1990 deficit-reduction deal, which drew the lasting ire of his party’s fiscal hawks for its tax increases.

And now like Booker and Clinton, it appears that Bush is walking back that critique.

In a series of tweets today, Bush said: "The point I was making yesterday is this: The political system today is hyperpartisan. Both sides are at fault."

He added, "My dad & Reagan sacrificed political points for good public policy."

And he concluded: "Past 4 years, Democrats have held leadership roles w/opportunities to reach across political aisle. For sake of politics, they haven't."