Tim Pawlenty wins 38 percent support for prez run from the people who know him best

A new poll of Minnesota voters -- the people who know him best -- shows just 38 percent support his potential run for the presidency in 2012. Not only that, but the survey, conducted by Rasmussen, says his support has dropped four points since they last asked the question in November.

Some other findings:

• 50 percent disapprove of his job performance as governor; 49 percent approve.
• 48 percent of men say they'd vote for Pawlenty; 55 percent of women say they would not.
• 49 percent say Pawlenty's potential run for the presidency has had a negative impact on his performance as governor.

And this is from Rasmussen, which as Eric Black at MinnPost and Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight point out, is one of the most right-skewed of mainstream polling operations. When a pollster is arguably on Pawlenty's side, and he still posts those kinds of numbers, what does that say?

Also, Eric Ostermeier recently posted at Smart Politics that T-Paw has never been less popular on his home turf. He based his call after looking back at 70 non-partisan public opinion polls dating to the start of T-Paw's first term in office in 2003. Once the rumors of Pawlenty's national political ambitions really began to take hold in 2009, Ostermeier found, the governor's approval numbers began to drop and have so far never recovered.

Meanwhile, Pawlenty's out of the state -- again -- trying to raise his profile. Latest stop: Florida. Here's his most recent tweet from the road:

Had a good meeting this morning with Minnesotans in Naples, Florida who have escaped the snow.

No word from Rasmussen on what that constituency thinks of T-Paw.