The Hill has the scoop:

A senior aide to Rick Santorum said Tuesday that the former Pennsylvania senator had already had discussions about a 2016 presidential bid.

Hogan Gidley, Santorum’s national communications director, was asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews whether the Santorum team was already considering a 2016 run.

“I’m not going to say we haven’t talked about it, of course, you look and you say what are you going to do in the future … a lot of people said ‘prepare for 2016,’ ” Gidley said.

Some political observers have hypothesized that Santorum chose to exit the race before the Pennsylvania primary to preserve his standing in the party — and avoid an embarrassing home-state loss.

All I can say is, “Good luck with that, Senator!” in a field which may consist of such conservative luminaries as Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Governor Mike Pence, and Rand Paul – among many others.

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