“I think the biggest mistake I made was not focusing very early on minority voters.”

— Mitt Romney, explaining to NBC News why he lost the 2012 presidential election.

“You know, it’s wonderful watching a campaign when you’re seeing it from the outside. I don’t look back and second guess. I don’t say, ‘Oh I wish I made a different decision.’ I’m glad I made the decision I did. And I’m looking forward to playing what limited role a guy who lost can play in a presidential contest.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by the Boston Globe.

The Hill: “The site for the gathering is Park City, Utah. The Republican hopefuls scheduled to attend are Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Scott Walker, Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Chris Christie and businesswoman Carly Fiorina. According to multiple media reports, Jeb Bush was invited but could not attend because of a trip to Europe.”

“One of the prime attractions of the event will be the ability to connect to Romney’s formidable donor network. For all his much-discussed missteps as a candidate, Romney remained financially competitive with President Obama in 2012.”

“Mitt Romney, who earlier this year decided against a third presidential bid after briefly flirting with a run, will jump back into the national political scene next month when he hosts GOP presidential hopefuls and some of the party’s biggest donors in Utah,” the Washington Post reports.

“Confirmed speakers from the likely 2016 Republican field include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, long seen as a Romney rival due to tensions between their camps, was invited but will not attend, per a Romney ally.”

Politico: “Forget about the Arkansas days, the small-bore scandals, her health care plan, and most everything else from the 1990s. A consensus is forming within the Republican Party that the plan of attack against Hillary Clinton should be of a more recent vintage, rooted in her accumulation of wealth and designed to frame her as removed from the concerns of average Americans.”

“The out-of-touch plutocrat template is a familiar one: Democrats used it to devastating effect against Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. While Hillary Clinton’s residences in New York and Washington may not have car elevators, there’s still a lengthy trail of paid speeches, tone-deaf statements about the family finances and questions about Clinton family foundation fundraising practices that will serve as cornerstones of the anti-Clinton messaging effort.”

New York Times: “The news on Friday that Mr. Romney would opt out of the race revealed as much about the party in 2015 as it did about the former Massachusetts governor’s weaknesses as a candidate. Republican leaders, especially the party’s wealthiest donors, are in an impatient and determined mood. They are eager to turn to a new face they believe can defeat what they anticipate will be a strong, well-funded Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

“The campaign to deny Mr. Romney another chance began almost immediately after he mused to donors at a Friday get-together in New York City on Jan. 9 that he was open to the possibility of another run. By that Sunday afternoon, William Oberndorf, a prominent California investor who supported Mr. Romney in both of his previous presidential campaigns, had emailed a group of 52 powerful Republicans, including former Secretary of State George Shultz, the investor Charles Schwab, Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois and the Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos with a blunt message: we need to support someone else.”

One day after President Obama mocked him in front of House Democrats, the White House “struck a gracious, conciliatory tone” about Mitt Romney‘s decision not to pursue a 2016 presidential campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said White House press secretary Josh Earnest: “Romney is a man of great faith and a man who has tremendous loyalty and commitment to his country, and that is something that is worthy of our respect. I’m confident that the announcement that he made today was a difficult one. I think he acknowledged as much. But it’s also an intensely personal decision that candidates and their families make.”