TAMPA, Fla. - Ask the public what word comes to mind when they think of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and many say "honest," though a new Pew Research Center poll finds that most words are negative.

About 42 percent of the words chosen by voters are negative, and include liar, arrogant, crook, out of touch, distrust and fake. Just 28 percent of the words chosen are positive, and "honest" is the overwhelming choice. About 30 percent are neutral such as businessman, rich, conservative.

Pew also found that Republicans are finally warming to Romney, a good thing since he gives his acceptance speech here at the GOP convention Thursday night.

Pew said, "On the eve of his nominating convention, Mitt Romney elicits a much more positive response from within his party than in the past. Currently, 63% of Republicans who offer a response describe Romney in clearly positive terms, up from just 29% as recently as March. The words honest and leadership are among the most common positive Republican descriptors. Just 28% of Republicans offer a negative description of Romney."

As expected, the Democrats are going the other way, said Pew. "Today, 62% of Democrats use a clearly negative term to describe Romney, with liar, arrogant, and distrust among the most common. The single most frequent word Democrats offer is rich, coded here as neutral in tone," said the polling giant.