For some reason, Rick Santorum really is preparing to run for president again:

Santorum is running again. The question is whether, as the race heads to new terrain, he’ll still be able to keep the pace.

Santorum is free to spend his time however he likes, but I don’t see the point of his running another presidential campaign. Yes, running for president can keep your name in circulation and help you to build up a following, but Santorum has already done that and doesn’t need to go through the process a second time. It’s always a bit risky to make firm predictions this far out, but I think it is safe to say that Santorum will never get anywhere near a Republican national ticket in any capacity. Another presidential bid might make some sense if he had a compelling and new message that he wanted to spread, but for the most part he is a throwback to the last decade with the disastrous foreign policy views to prove it. Even if he had a message that might interest a significant bloc of primary voters, he is an off-putting and unappealing messenger. He has a knack for taking an argument that you might otherwise find attractive and presenting it in a way that makes it seem awful. Even foreign policy hawks would be leery of having Santorum as their standard-bearer, because he is a fanatic on these issues and makes no attempt to conceal it.

There is probably a dedicated core of Santorum supporters from the previous cycle that would back him again in the next election, but there aren’t nearly enough of them to make a difference in any of the caucuses or primaries. A former senator that lost his last election by almost 20 points is not going make a comeback in a presidential race. Santorum would have been better off if he had given up on elective politics after 2012. Unfortunately, he seems determined to get kicked around one more time.