Former Pennsylvania Senator Rich Santorum just called me to talk about Osama bin Laden’s death and his three-city lecture tour in Iowa today.  He delivered a lecture in Iowa City early this morning. He’s in Pella over the noon-hour as part of The Family Leader’s presidential lecture series.  Santorum will speak in Sioux Center late this afternoon.  Here’s a transcript of our telephone conversation.

Radio Iowa news director O. Kay Henderson (me): What are your thoughts on bin Laden’s death and what do you see as the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan?

Santorum: “I’m as energized as anybody that we were able to take this man whose mere existence was a sign of defiance to the United States, that we were actually able to take him out and prove that his comments in the past were saying, ‘The Americans, they’re weak…They won’t be diligent in fighting us.’  I think we’ve shown that in fact we will be and we are and we did and hopefully the lesson learned is that diligence does pay off and that this war is not over and that the threat has not been subdued, but that our actions, our continuing vigilance in Afghanistan and in Iraq and, hopefully, in other places around the world and in this country will continue to keep us safe and…ultimately be victorious in subduing this threat.”

Henderson: Some are starting to talk about bringing the troops home.  Is there an ongoing mission in Afghanistan?

Santorum: “One of the things we’ve learned is that when you have — particularly in the Muslim world — you have failed states that can be occupied by religious fanatics, you create an atmosphere for bad things to happen not just around that region but in our country and so we need to remain vigilant that we don’t leave in Afghanistan what caused the events of 9/11 which is a failed state that can be run and supported by terrorist organizations.”

Henderson: In 1991, George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoe-in for reelection in 1992 because of the way the Gulf War had been prosecuted and many Democrats who were mulling a run for president didn’t run because of that impression.  How does bin Laden’s death impact Republicans like yourself who are thinking about running for president?

Santorum: “This is one moment, a very welcome moment.  It’s an important moment in the fight but there are a lot of issues that we have to deal with going forward in other places around the world as this fight continues. And we’ve seen the president of the United States and the actions he’s had to deal with de novo as a president, which is places like Iran and their revolution, Egypt, Libya, Syria, other places around the Middle East — the president has handled all these situations poorly and as a result I believe we are less safe as a result of that and those are the issues that are going to be most important to the voters. As we saw in 1992, ‘what have you done for me lately?’ is a very important and, I think, appropriate way the American public looks at these situations.  It’s not what you’ve accomplished — that’s certainly a factor — but ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘What will you do?’ that’s much more important.”

Henderson: As a Pennsylvanian, did you feel at all compelled to cancel your appearances in Iowa today and go to Shanksville instead?

Santorum: We’ve got some serious issues that we’ve got in this country with the continuing battle with the jihadists and I’m not happy with the way we’re dealing with those and so I’d rather continue to go out and talk about the future. I certainly share in the enthusiasm and the support for our team that was able to kill bin Laden, but you know, my job is to focus on where our country is going in the future.”

Santorum’s lectures are focused on America as a “moral enterprise” with people “molded by faith”.