Pity Mitt Romney. After all, when Fox News and Rasmussen have abandoned you, what is left?

While Rick Santorum continues to creep closer to Romney in national GOP primary polling (and Rasmussen desperately continues to make an electability argument for Santorum), Romney’s prospects when paired with Barack Obama in a prospective general election battle continue to veer in a direction that Republicans cannot feel too good about.

But, before we get to those decidedly bleak general election numbers for Mitt Romney, let’s look at those primary numbers. There are signs that the Gallup tracker will continue to tighten (if Nate Silver is dead on), and as I noted yesterday, PPP took it a step further, projecting a Santorum lead in the primary nationally.

For today, however, the polls amount to a calm before the storm, though the Santorum surge at the statewide level are pretty darned clear:

NATIONAL (Fox News): Romney 33, Santorum 23, Gingrich 22, Paul 15

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 34, Santorum 22, Gingrich 18, Paul 10

GEORGIA (Landmark/Rosetta Stone–R): Gingrich 35, Santorum 26, Romney 16, Paul 5

TENNESSEE (American Research Group): Santorum 34, Romney 27, Gingrich 16, Paul 13

On the general election front, there are warning signs aplenty for Team Romney, particularly as it relates to the electability theme that has provided the foundation for much of his campaign’s rationale:

NATIONAL (Fox News): Obama d. Romney (47-42); Obama d. Paul (48-38); Obama d. Santorum (50-38); Obama d. Gingrich (51-38)

NATIONAL (Rasmussen): Obama d. Santorum (46-42); Obama d. Romney (50-40)

FLORIDA (Rasmussen): Obama d. Santorum (47-46); Obama d. Romney (47-44)

There are some real fascinating data points in that Fox News survey, which I will explore after the jump.

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