KING: Senator Santorum, thanks for being with us today.

Let me start by asking you how your daughter is doing. You had a bit of a scare this weekend. Your 3-year-old was in intensive care.

She's doing better?

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's doing much better, thank you so much. In fact, she had a -- a very tough Friday and Saturday, but I feel very, very blessed. You know, I -- I haven't been home, John, since Christmas -- Christmas Day.

And the one day I was home, actually, to get my taxes so we could turn those in, turned out to be a day I needed to be home. And she -- she went through a very, very tough time. But yesterday afternoon, she really -- she really rallied. And she's doing -- she's doing much better and we feel -- we feel things are good and that I can get back out on the road and that Karen and the kids can now take it from here.

But it was, it was hairy. I just want to thank you and everybody else for their prayers during this time. And it meant the world to us. And I know it helped Bella a lot.

KING: Well, we'll continue to pray for Bella. Now that you are back on the trail, you mentioned you went home to get your taxes. And that question has come up.

So when will we see them?

SANTORUM: I have got four years that we're putting together. And I just want to make sure that I have got all the right papers in place and I'm not missing something from my return. So I won't have someone take a look at them before I release them.

I haven't had a chance to do that yet. As you know, I just got -- get out of the hospital with my daughter.

So if you can just give me a little bit of time to make sure that we're -- we're not going to say, oh, you didn't release this form and this should be in here, we'll be OK.

KING: Let me ask you a question about pressing news of the day, violence escalating in Syria. The bloodshed and the killing escalating in Syria.

Would a President Santorum, on this day, do anything different than President Obama is doing?

SANTORUM: This is a -- a regime that is -- that is a puppet state of Iran and -- and is one that has to go, in my opinion, if we're going to see peace and stability for Israel and in the Middle East.

And so we would be -- I would have been much more proactive in supporting the -- the insurgency and would be doing all I can, again, not militarily, but behind the scenes in supporting in any way possible the -- the pro-democracy movement that is taking place in Syria today.

KING: It is the final day of campaigning in Florida, and yet you are in Missouri. I understand why. Governor Romney has a big lead. Speaker Gingrich is behind him and you're trying to save your resources.

But when Rick Santorum looks at the calendar, do you say I have to have a victory in the early weeks of February or some time in the month of February to go on?

How do you assess viability?

SANTORUM: Well, I mean, I look at it this way. I think this is a -- a long process -- this is going to be a long process. This race isn't going to be over any time soon. We're here in Missouri. We've -- we've got some good poll numbers here in Missouri that shows basically a three way race between Governor Romney, Speaker Gingrich and myself.

And so we -- we are planting our flag here. We're going to go to Minnesota. Again, polls show us in a competitive position there. And then off to Colorado and Nevada. These are the next four states that are going to be -- be up, one on Saturday and -- and the other three on -- on Tuesday, a week from tomorrow. And we've just -- we're just showing, this is a national campaign. We have resources deployed here. We're going to be spending money in all of these states.

And we're going to be working beyond that. We're hiring staff and have, in fact, hired staff in some of the other states that are coming up on Super Tuesday.

This is a -- a race that we believe will come to us at some point. And we'll be able to take advantage of it when it does.

KING: I want you to listen to something you said on a conference call, tele-town hall, with supporters last night. Speaker Gingrich in Florida is making the case, don't elect a Massachusetts moderate.

You sound pretty similar in this remark.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: That's one of the mistakes that can -- that Republicans make when they look at Independent voters, oh, well, we have to have someone who's more moderate, because that's what Independents are.

Well, Independents may be moderate, but moderates, by definition, aren't driven by issues. They are driven by other things and have feet in both camps.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So you're making the case the Republicans should turn to a conservative.

Do you believe Mitt Romney could win a general election?

SANTORUM: I'm -- I'm hopeful that any of the Republicans left can win a general election and I will support whoever that nominee is and will work tirelessly because we have to defeat President Obama.

But what I'm -- my point is that the idea that we need to elect a moderate in order to get moderate votes is simply a fallacy, that John McCain would be president and Bob Dole would have been president.

We need to elect someone who's a principled conservative that can motivate conservatives and Republicans and, in fact, as -- as I was mentioning, I -- I went on to say that -- that in many cases, moderate voters tend to vote for the person, the person who they believe has the qualities and characters of the leader that can govern this country and bring America together.

And I think on that score, we score very, very highly. And I think even -- even the polls are now suggesting that -- that on that front, we present the -- present the best opportunity for us to get those voters. KING: Senator Santorum, thanks for your time tonight.

SANTORUM: Thank you very much, John.

Appreciate the opportunity.

And thanks again for the prayers.

KING: Take care.