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Santorum considers presidential run in 2012

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a leading conservative, says he is thinking about running for the Republican nomination for president in 2010, calls Obama administration "injurious" to country.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum says he is considering seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2012, calling President Obama vulnerable to a challenge from the right and his policies "injurious to America."

"The dynamic has changed," Santorum said Tuesday on a RNC conference call with reporters to discuss Obama's fundraiser for Sen. Arlen Specter (D.,Pa.). "A lot of folks who wouldn't have thought about running against an incumbent president" are thinking about it. "If you'd asked the question a couple of months ago…"

Santorum cited Obama's declining poll numbers and the furor over his plans to overhaul health care and the huge federal spending on the stimulus package and bank and auto-industry bailouts.  Most of all, Santorum said that Obama has "failed to deliver on what he promised, to be a transformative president" who would unify the country.

A lot of people are going to take a look and see what they can do to confront this presidency, which many of us –as you are seeing from the tea parties and the like – which many of us believe is injurious to America," Santorum said. He said a 2012 race is "something that I think I would consider."

Santorum was responding to Commonwealth Confidential's question about his recent statement to a national group of Catholic leaders that he was thinking about running and asking for prayers. He was answering a question from a member of the audience at the group's convention when he said he had thought about a presidential run. Santorum said Tuesday that he was trying to make the point that the political climate had turned more favorable to any conservative challenge to Obama.

"I went from not considering it at all to saying I would consider it – and that's as far as I'm willing to go 3 ½ years out," Santorum said.