Santorum In Iowa: "I'm Here"

Since former Sen. Rick Santorum (R) announced he'd be traveling to Iowa in October, he's been a darling of the 2012 speculation game, with the political world buzzing about the possibilities of a Santorum run.

Yes, it could be difficult: the last election Santorum took part in, he lost by 18 percentage points to Sen. Bob Casey (D), who succeeded him. But he's a pure conservative, and his time in the Senate gave him conservative credentials on a wide range of issues...so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Well, the long-awaited visit is here: Santorum is in Iowa at last. Not only that, he sat for an interview with Radio Iowa's Kay Henderson. Apparently he's been Googling himself.

After reminding Henderson that he came to Iowa because he was invited by the Amerian Future Fund, at whose event he's speaking today, not out of overt presidential ambitions. But all the Iowa talk has given him a larger platform, he said:

"I have to tell you I was surprised by the response, just invitations...If you Googled 'Santorum in Iowa' before I did that Politico interview, there were 350 items would come up, entries that would come up on the search.  I Googled it this morning. You know how many came up?  Guess....1,360,000 entries!  That surprised me, you know, when I see that and when I saw the reaction out there.  It's a little, it makes you step back and think when I actually wasn't thinking about it.

"You say I should have been thinking about this long ago.  Well, I wasn't. Am I thinking about it seriously now?  Well, I'm here.