By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty isn't doing well with Republican voters, according to a new Rasmussen poll about the potential 2012 GOP candidates for president.

Asked "for whom would you vote" in a 2012 presidential primary, just four percent picked Pawlenty. He was bested not only by Mitt Romney (24%), Sarah Palin (18%), Mike Huckabee (29%) and Newt Gingrich (14%) but also by "some other candidate" (6%) and "not sure (7%).

It gets worse.

Those surveyed would also asked to pick the candidate they'd "least like to see win the Republican nomination in 2012." Pawlenty beat all the others on that question and was the least preferred choice of 28%. Palin came in second with 21% followed by Gingrich at 20%, Romney tied with "not sure" at 9%, Huckabee at 8% and "some other candidate" took the bottom spot 5%.

The Republicans were very hopeful that Barack Obama would be a one-term president. Eighty-one percent of voters in the poll said it was somewhat or very likely that a Republican candidate would beat him in 2012.

Alex Conant, Pawlenty's political spokesman, said the poll numbers mean zippo:

"This poll was meaningless when it showed Governor Pawlenty at 1% in July, and it's still meaningless now that he's at 4%. I'm confident the pollsters have thought a lot more about 2012 than any of the people they surveyed -- it's simply way too early to be speculating about the next presidential election. Governor Pawlenty is focused on finishing his term strong, and helping electing Republicans in 2010."

Today, Pawlenty's focus on finishing his term and electing Republicans has landed him in California, where he will deliver the keynote address to the Western Conservative Political Action Conference.