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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."

CDC Cartoon

Romney leads among likely 2016 Iowa Republican caucusgoers in new poll

Iowa Republicans are hoping Mitt Romney will change his mind about running for president in 2016.
Despite the 2012 Republican nominee’s continued assertions that he will not run for president again, Romney is still the top pick for likely Iowa Republican 2016 caucusgoers, according to a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa poll released Tuesday.
Romney was the top vote-getter in the poll with 17 percent and Dr. Ben Carson, a conservative neurosurgeon who has never held public office, came in second with 11 percent.
Carson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday night that the chances of him running are “50/50.”
Iowa Republicans were less enthusiastic about other potential candidates, most of whom currently hold public office and are better nationally recognized.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul came in third in the poll with 10 percent, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush failed to make waves with 6 percent and 4 percent each.
The poll results came a day after Romney’s wife Ann insisted to the Los Angeles Times that there was no chance of a third Romney presidential bid.
“Done,” she said. “Completely. Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done. Done. Done. Done.”
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a wide lead on the competition with 53 percent. Massachussets Sen. Elizabeth Warren came in second with 10 percent.

Pentagon withheld information about decades-old chemical weapons during Iraq War, report claims

This photo shows the interior of a chemical weapons facility in Iraq (AP)

American troops were exposed to chemical weapons multiple times in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while the Pentagon kept their discoveries of the expired or degraded weapons secret from investigators, fellow soldiers, and military doctors, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reported late Tuesday that American troops reported finding approximately 5,000 chemical warheads, shells, or aviation bombs in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On at least six occasions, soldiers were wounded by those weapons, which had been manufactured before 1991. In all, the paper reported that 17 U.S. soldiers and seven Iraqi police officers were exposed to chemical agents during the war. The U.S. government said its number was slightly higher, but did not release a specific figure. 
The paper reported that most of the agents were discovered around the Muthanna State Establishment northwest of Baghdad, which had been a center of chemical weapons production in the 1980s. The complex has been held by Islamic State militants since June. The Iraqi government told the United Nations that approximately 2,500 chemical rockets remained on the grounds of the facility when it had fallen to the militants. 
In the months after the 2003 invasion, The Times reports, the Pentagon first made searching for chemical weapons a lower priority in the midst of attacks from insurgents, then withheld data from high-level investigations, including the Iraq Study Group in 2004 and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2006. During the latter investigation, the paper reports, U.S. soldiers discovered more than 2,400 chemical rockets, some containing sarin gas, at a former Republican Guard compund. All appeared to have been buried before the first Gulf War in 1991. 
As late as 2010, Iraqi troops were discovering chemical weapons that appeared to have been collected elsewhere by U.S. or Iraqi army units and had not been secured properly, according to The Times. The ultimate responsibility for locating, securing, and destroying the weapons was to fall to Nouri al-Maliki's Iraqi government. The paper reports that a plan was drafted to entomb the Muthanna site in concrete, but the remains of the facility were overrun by Islamic State before the plan could be put into action. 
The Times also reports that as the U.S. stay in Iraq dragged on, doctors became less aware of how to treat wounds sustained by chemical weapons. Military officials reportedly attributed the soldiers' wounds to conventional weapons or other factors to prevent acknowledging the discovery of pre-1991 chemical weapons. In one case, a wounded soldier who suffered burns and blisters due to mustard gas was presented with a Purple Heart by former Secretary of the Army Peter Geren. Weeks later, he was told that he had been denied the medal because the Army had determined that his wounds had not been suffered in enemy action. 
The Army reportedly admitted to The Times that it had not followed its guidelines for treating soldiers exposed to chemical weapons in the years following the invasion. It vowed to identify troops and veterans who had been exposed and follow up on their cases.

Dallas nurses allege 'no protocol, no system' in treatment of Ebola patient

Nurses at a Dallas hospital have claimed that a haphazard and sloppy care system was maintained during the treatment of Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person to die of the Ebola virus in America last week. 
The caregivers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital alleged that Duncan was left in an open area of the hospital's emergency room for hours and that nurses worked for days without protective gear in a statement released late Tuesday by the largest U.S. nurses' union. 
The statement from the nurses came two days after one of their own, 26-year-old Nina Pham, tested positive for the virus and entered treatment at the hospital. She is listed as being in stable condition. Pham was one of over 70 staffers who cared for Duncan during his illness and who are being monitored for possible infection.  
Deborah Burger of National Nurses United claimed that the nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient whose symptoms included explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from "several" and "a few" nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She refused to elaborate.
Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
"Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously," he said in a statement. "We have numerous measures in place to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24/7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting."
He said the hospital would "review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees."
Among the other allegations raised by the nurses are that Duncan's lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital's pneumatic tubes, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system. The nurses also alleged that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
The statement also claimed that Duncan was initially kept in a non-isolated area of the hospital's emergency room for several hours before being moved. Patients who were exposed to him were allegedly only kept in isolation for a day before being moved to be with other patients. In the same vein, the nurses claim that they were made to treat other patients while also treating Duncan, and were offered no more than an optional seminar to deal with changing guidelines. 
 "There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system," Burger said.
Even today, Burger said, some hospital staff at the Dallas hospital do not have proper equipment to handle the outbreak.
"Hospital managers have assured nurses that proper equipment has been ordered but it has not arrived yet," she said.
The nurses' statement said they had to "interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available," even as he produced "a lot of contagious fluids." Duncan's medical records, which his family shared with The Associated Press, underscore some of those concerns.
Almost 12 hours after he arrived in the emergency room by ambulance, his hospital chart says Duncan "continues to have explosive diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and projectile vomiting." He was feverish and in pain.
When Ebola was suspected but unconfirmed, a doctor wrote "using the disposable shoe covers should also be considered." At that point, by all protocols, those shoe covers should have been mandatory to prevent anyone from tracking contagious body fluids around the hospital.
A few days later, however, entries in the hospital charts suggest that protection was improving.
"RN entered room in Tyvek suits, triple gloves, triple boots, and respirator cap in place," wrote a nurse.
The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union. DeMoro and Burger said the nurses claimed they had been warned by the hospital not to speak to the media or they would be fired. They did not specify whether the nurses making the claims were among Duncan's caregivers.
The AP has attempted since last week to contact dozens of individuals involved in Duncan's care. Those who responded to reporters' inquiries have so far been unwilling to speak.
David R. Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which monitors patient safety and has the authority to withhold federal funding, said his agency is going to want to get all of the information the nurses provided.
"We can't talk about whether we're going to investigate or not, but we'd be interested in hearing that information," he said.
CDC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Duncan first sought care at the hospital's ER late on Sept. 25 and was sent home the next morning. He was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept. 28. Unlike his first visit, mention of his recent arrival from Liberia immediately roused suspicion of an Ebola risk, records show.
The CDC said Tuesday 76 people at the hospital could have been exposed to Duncan after his second ER visit. Another 48 people are being monitored for possible exposure before he was hospitalized.