WSJ/NBC gauges Romney, Palin favorables

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf) confirms recent polling showing Sarah Palin's favorability dipping.

32% of Americans are somewhat or very positive toward Palin, while 43% have a somewhat or very negative opinion of her. 20% are neutral.

28% of Americans have a somewhat or very positive opinion of Mitt Romney, 20% don't like him, and 30% are neutral.

So Romney has a better approve/disapprove ratio (+8%) than Palin (-11%), but there are more Americans who've yet to decide if they love him or hate him.

A note: one out of every five Americans are neutral on Palin. That's good news for her. Kind of. She starts trying win those 20% with 43% already against her, which means she'll have to take a lot of the neutral vote to come up with something 50% or higher.

The question is: how hardened are those 43% against her? The answer: her opposition is much deeper than her support. 27% have a very negative view of her, while only 14% have a very positive opinion.

So suddenly, she's in the position of having to do very well, indeed, on that neutral 20%.