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As for his raison d’être to get in this race? There are potential GOP candidates like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, who might excite the social conservative base of the Republican Party, and there’s Mitt Romney, beloved for his business background. But while those candidates would have natural constituencies, Santorum suggested he’d portray himself as “a strong, principled conservative…that can unite our party, that can energize every aspect of our party,” including the fiscal, foreign policy and social conservative wings.

When it comes to those factions, Santorum says candidates dating back to Reagan have “been able to check the boxes,” though many didn’t appear to have “the passion or commitment across the board on all the issues that I think people in this day and age and this election cycle would like to see.”