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Fox News Poll: As election nears, voters say things are 'going to hell in a handbasket'

The world’s “going to hell in a handbasket,” according to a majority of voters in the latest Fox News poll.
And that’s draining support for President Obama’s policies. But will it help Republicans on Election Day? Unclear.
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The new poll, released Wednesday, finds 58 percent of voters feel things in the world are “going to hell in a handbasket.” That includes nearly half of Democrats (48 percent) and majorities of independents (61 percent) and Republicans (71 percent).
Some 35 percent of voters channel Bob Marley’s mantra that everything will be all right.
Meanwhile, by a 61-36 percent margin, voters say they don’t feel hopeful about the direction of the country. That’s a reversal from 2012 when 57 percent felt hopeful. The shift is driven by a nearly 30-point drop among Democrats: 80 percent felt hopeful two years ago, while just 52 percent say the same now. In August 2012, Democrats were likely buoyed by Obama’s re-election campaign.
In a recent economic speech at Northwestern University, Obama said even though he wasn’t on the ballot this election -- his policies were. He should be glad that’s not actually the case: a 53 percent majority would vote against his policies if they were up for a vote. That includes one in six Democrats (17 percent).
Plus, by a 10 percentage-point margin, more voters think the country is “worse off” today than before Obama was elected (49 worse off vs. 39 better off).
The president’s job rating is only slightly better: 40 percent approve and 52 percent disapprove.
And then there’s this: voters not only think his signature legislation ObamaCare is “mostly a bad thing” for the country (52 percent), they also believe the administration misrepresented the law to get it passed (55 percent).
Despite all that negative sentiment toward the administration, the poll shows Republicans have failed to make significant gains this election season -- mostly because voters think they stink too.
For example, views of the Republican Party are more negative than positive by 18 points (36 favorable vs. 54 unfavorable), while the Democratic Party is underwater by just 7 points (43 favorable vs. 50 unfavorable).
Before the 2010 midterm election, Democrats were underwater by 8 points, while the GOP was even at 44 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable.
Meanwhile, Obama’s 44 percent favorable rating is the lowest since he entered office (52 percent unfavorable). His all-time low is 41 percent favorable in January 2007.
The generic ballot test shows likely voters prefer the Republican candidate over the Democrat in their House district by a slim three-point margin: 45-42 percent. That’s well within the poll’s margin of sampling error. Two weeks ago the GOP candidate was up by seven points (47-40 percent among likely voters).
The gender gap continues, as women are more inclined to back the Democratic candidate by a 10 point margin, while men pick the Republican candidate by 18 points.
Independents are twice as likely to support the Republican over the Democrat (49-25 percent).
Likely voters also want Republicans to win control of the U.S. Senate this year by 47 to 43 percent.
Three weeks before Election Day, the spread on the generic House vote has narrowed despite enthusiasm remaining higher among the GOP. Among likely voters, more Republicans (45 percent) than Democrats (30 percent) are “extremely” interested in the election by 15 points. Two weeks ago it was GOP +10.
Republicans (66 percent) are also more likely than Democrats (60 percent) to say the outcome of this year’s election will be “very” important to the direction of the country.
The well-known get-out-the-vote efforts by Democrats could blunt the Republican enthusiasm edge. So far though, about equal numbers -- about one voter in four -- have been contacted this year about voting for Republicans as for Democrats.
Economic issues dominated the 2012 presidential election. This year there’s ISIS. Ebola. Ukraine. The number of voters prioritizing economic issues has dropped from 45 percent in 2012 to 32 percent now. At the same time, the number picking national security issues went from seven percent before to 23 percent in the new poll. Fiscal issues (16 percent) and social issues (12 percent) stay mostly unchanged.
Voters are sharply divided on social issues, such as legalizing same-sex marriage (45 favor versus 45 oppose) and creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. (46 favor vs. 44 oppose).
Majorities of Democrats favor legalizing same-sex marriage (66 percent favor) and creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (61 percent favor). Republicans are the reverse. Majorities oppose legalizing gay marriage (64 percent oppose) and making it easier for illegal immigrants to stay (57 percent oppose).
On abortion, 43 percent of all registered voters are pro-life, while 48 percent are pro-choice. Among likely voters, it splits 46-46.
Pollpourri
Voter confidence that the Secret Service “can protect the president from harm” has dropped to 47 percent -- hardly surprising given that an armed man jumped the fence and made it inside the White House last month. In January 2009 a high of 66 percent had confidence in the Secret Service. Now a 52 percent majority is not confident.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released a book critical of his former boss, President Obama. What do voters think of officials slamming a president after working for him? By more than two-to-one, voters say it is “honorable” rather than “disloyal” (59-27 percent).
A 55-percent majority favors Obama stopping “all border crossings into or from Mexico” until a U.S. Marine who mistakenly crossed the border six months ago is released (36 percent opposed).
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,012 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from October 12-14, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. For the subgroup of 831 likely voters, the margin of sampling error is also plus or minus three points.

Democrats outraising Republicans as election nears

Despite outrage from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats about billionaires like the Koch brothers donating to the GOP, statistics show Democrats are outraising Republicans this election season.
Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics estimated, "the Democratic senatorial campaign committee has raised $111 million compared to $82 million for their Republican counterpart."
Even when you take all sources of money, from all donors for all races, the Democrats still lead. "It's about $595 million for the Democrats, and about $450 million for the Republicans," Krumholz said.
In the run-up to the Nov. 4 election, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee made a last minute push and just announced it raised $15.5 million in September, its best month ever.
Political analyst Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute said, "that's a change and it says that Republican contributors big and small are martialing to the cause."
Although the Democrats have enjoyed a money lead for some time, they still are asking for more cash. A Democratic campaign group on October 7 urged,"Today's ad buy deadline is the most critical of the election. This is our last chance to rescue Democrats drowning in Koch-funded attacks. Can you chip in $5 or more?"
Ben Weider of the Center for Public Integrity, another watchdog group, noted, "everyone kind of likes to play the underdog role. And so it's been very interesting to see fundraising ads, particularly related to Senate races where Democrats are claiming that, you know, they're losing the race."
Much of the Democratic party's money comes from the president's non-stop efforts to raise cash, having done more than 50 fundraisers, seven just last week, all closed to the media, including one at the home of real estate baron Rich Richman -- a name Democrats would likely ridicule if he were giving to Republicans.
Democratic Senate candidates, while happy to get the money, sometimes try to avoid being seen with an unpopular president. According to Barone, that's "because these candidates are running in states where President Obama's job performance rating is negative, in many cases highly negative."
In some recent polls, his personal approval rating stands at only 40 percent.
Democrats recently pulled money from 11 marginal races, and the Republicans just poured another $6.5 million into the Senate race in North Carolina after internal polls showed Republican Thom Tillis in a position to win.
Weider explained,"as you're getting three weeks out, you've got to spend your money in the places where it will do the most good."
But not all money goes into ads. Some is reserved for voter turnout efforts, because fewer people vote in mid-term elections.
Weider noted that "TV ads accounted for about 50 percent and then that pool of the remaining 50 percent, you can kind of split between get out the vote, mailers, phone calls."
Low turnout elections tend to favor the angriest and most energized voters, and these days, that tends to be Republicans.
“There's a close correlation between how voters approve of the president, whether it's this president or the previous one, and how they vote in Senate elections," Barone explained.

CDC considers adding names of health workers monitored for Ebola to no-fly list

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering adding the names of healthcare workers being monitored for the Ebola virus to the government's no-fly list, federal officials tell Fox News. 
The move is being considered as a response to Wednesday's disclosure that Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson was cleared to fly on a commercial airliner earlier this week despite having been exposed to the Ebola virus while treating Thomas Edward Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. 
Texas health officials announced early Wednesday that Vinson, 29, had tested positive for the virus, making her the second hospital worker to become infected. Vinson's fellow nurse, 26-year-old Nina Pham, tested positive last weekend. Over 70 workers involved in Duncan's treatment are being monitored by the CDC. Duncan died Oct. 8 of the virus after nearly two weeks in the hospital. 
On Monday, a CDC official cleared Vinson to fly from Cleveland to Dallas on board Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 despite the fact that she had called and reported having a slight fever, one of the common symptoms of the Ebola virus. Vinson's reported temperature -- 99.5 degrees -- was below the threshold of 100.4 degrees set by the agency and she had no symptoms, according to CDC spokesman David Daigle.
On Wednesday, after Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden acknowledged that the nurse should not have been allowed to board the plane. Vinson had been in Ohio visiting family and had not experienced initial symptoms during her outward journey. 
From now on, Frieden said, no one else involved in Duncan's care would be allowed to travel "other than in a controlled environment." He cited guidelines that permit charter flights or travel by car but no public transportation.
Federal health officials are now attempting to track down Vinson's fellow passengers on the flight, the CDC said Wednesday.  Frontier has taken the aircraft out of service. The plane was flown Wednesday without passengers from Cleveland to Denver, where the airline said it will undergo a fourth cleaning, including replacement of seat covers, carpeting and air filters. One Central Texas school district temporarily closed three of its campuses because two of its students traveled on the same flight as Vinson.
Early Thursday, Frontier released a statement saying that the crew of Flight 1143 had been placed on paid leave for 21 days, despite CDC guidance that they were all safe to fly.  On its website, the CDC says all people possibly exposed to Ebola should restrict their travels -- including by avoiding commercial flights -- for 21 days. 
Also Thursday, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said it was offering rooms to any workers being monitored for the virus who wished to avoid the possibility of passing the virus to family or friends. 
Meanwhile, federal health officials, including Frieden, were scheduled to testify before the oversight subcommittee of the House Emergy and Commerce Committee Thursday. 
In prepared testimony, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Duncan's death and the infections of the two Dallas nurses and a nurse in Spain "intensify our concerns about this global health threat." He said two Ebola vaccine candidates were undergoing a first phase of human clinical testing this fall. But he cautioned that scientists were still in the early stages of understanding how Ebola infection can be treated and prevented.
Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Duncan's family showed Vinson inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan's body fluids. Late Wednesday, she arrived in Atlanta to be treated at Emory University Hospital, which has already treated three Americans diagnosed with the virus.
Also Wednesday, President Obama sought to ease fears in the U.S., urging a stepped-up response even as he stressed that the danger in the United States remained a long shot.
"We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step though what needs to be done," he said.
But Obama also noted that the Ebola is not an airborne virus like the flu and thus is more difficult to transmit.
The president made a point of noting that when he visited with health care workers who had attended to Ebola patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where Vinson was taken for further treatment late Wednesday, he hugged and kissed them without fear of infection.
"They followed the protocols, they knew what they were doing," he said. "I felt perfectly safe doing so."