Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty received his strongest nationwide support yet in a survey of potential 2012 presidential contenders, as he jumped up to 8 percent in a poll released Friday.

Other polls, however, find Pawlenty is still stuck in low single digits: A Washington Post-ABC News survey this week put the former Minnesota governor at 2 percent.

Friday's poll from Public Policy Polling still leaves Pawlenty in fifth place behind the four early frontrunners for 2012: Former Govs. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. But Pawlenty's showing also puts him at the top of second-tier prospects like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

Pawlenty's boost comes on the heels of a national media blitz and book release last week, which has seen modest sales thus far.

Of course, the meaning of early polls is greatly affected by who actually enters the race. Unlike Pawlenty, who is almost certain to jump into the fray, it remains an open question whether Huckabee will launch another presidential bid, one he said Friday that he won't answer until the summer.

Public Policy Polling Director Tom Jensen wrote that besides Huckabee, who had a clear lead at 24 percent, Pawlenty was "the other winner in this month's poll."

"Eight percent is certainly the best he's done in one of our national polls and it's a sign that he could be starting to gain some traction," Jensen wrote. "His record strong standing is part of why Romney's polling so poorly this month, as we've consistently found that they tap into a similar centrist base."

But the poll also warned that Pawlenty's gains had some downside for Republicans: "A strong Pawlenty candidacy is good news for Democrats," Jensen wrote, "because anything that divides the already diluted Republican moderate vote can only make it more likely the GOP nominates someone too far to the right to be viable in the general election.

See the full results here.