It's perhaps the time Santorum has been open to anything
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Rick Santorum
states the obvious:
I'm open to looking into the presidential race in 2016.
This, coming as he prepares to spend half the week in Iowa, is not exactly shocking. Rick Santorum has been the most blatant 2016 wannabe this side of Rand Paul ever since election day 2012.
Unfortunately for Santorum, Republican voters are probably a lot less open to him running than he is to receiving their support. He did well in 2012 because Mitt Romney was such an awful candidate, but despite being the 2012 runner-up, he's barely registering when it comes to 2016 preferences, polling south of Rick Perry—and barely ahead of Nikki Haley, who isn't even running.
Among Republicans in the new Quinnipiac poll that Greg Dworkin wrote about earlier, Santorum has lower ratings than Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, and Jeb Bush.
Just about the only Republican that Rick Santorum has better ratings than (among Republicans) is Chris Christie. But Chris Christie, should he decide to seek the 2016 nomination, has an enormous advantage over Santorum: Christie can win, and might be the only Republican who can say that. Santorum will be an entertaining and appalling spectacle in 2016, but he's not getting anywhere near the finish line.