Fox News Polls: Republicans Finish Strong in Key States on Eve of Election - Fox News

Published November 01, 2010 | FoxNews.com

On election eve, Republicans are finishing strong in key states.

The final round of Fox News battleground state polls shows Democratic incumbents in trouble across the country.

The latest surveys were conducted on Oct. 30 by Pulse Opinion Research for Fox News. Each survey included 1,000 likely voters and has a margin of error of 3 points.

Nevada Poll Shows Angle with Momentum

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid heads into Election Day in dire shape for holding on to his Nevada Senate seat.

The latest Fox News Battleground state poll shows Republican Sharron Angle now leading Reid by 3 points, 48 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. Reid dropped two points from the last Fox poll of the Silver State two weeks ago.

It's yet another sign that the Oct. 21 debate in the race may have been a tipping point for Angle, whom Reid's campaign had attacked as "extreme," "nuts" and "crazy" for months. By outperforming expectations in the debate, and with her "Man up, Harry Reid" zinger, Angle seems to have gone a long way in closing the deal in this race.

Favorable views of Angle shot up from 36 percent to 43 percent and unfavorable views of the former state senator dropped from 58 percent to 52 percent.

Voters turned just as sharply against Reid as they became more approving of Angle. Unfavorable views of Reid climbed 4 points to a toxic 60 percent.

But Nevada voters are generally unhappy with Democrats, including President Obama.

Obama’s approval rating dropped to a new low in the Fox News battleground state poll of 38 percent and a new high of 53 percent said that Obama’s policies had hurt Nevada’s economy.

Women seem to be more uneasy about Angle as evidenced by a giant gender gap. While Angle has the edge among male voters 53 percent to 37 percent, among women, the Republican is down 53 percent to 43 percent.

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Republican Buck Widens Lead in Colorado Senate

Colorado Republican Ken Buck is closing strong in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Buck gained 4 points from the Fox News battleground state poll taken two weeks ago and now leads Bennet 50 percent to 46 percent among likely voters. For a Senate challenger to be leading so late and be above 50 percent is a serious sign that Bennet may be headed for defeat.

The race for Colorado governor also continues to show American Constitution Party nominee Tom Tancredo closing in on Democrat John Hickenlooper, now trailing by a scant 3 points. Republican Dan Maes has largely been abandoned by members of his party for Tancredo, a former five-term Republican member of the House.

Hickenlooper now takes 47 percent of the vote to Tancredo’s 44 percent. Maes drew just 6 percent support, down from 10 percent two weeks ago. Seventy three percent of Republicans backed Tancredo over their party’s nominee.

President Obama's agenda continues to be unpopular in Colorado. His job approval in the state is steady at 40 percent and a consistent 48 percent believe his policies have hurt Colorado’s economy.

In the Senate race, Bennet has attacked Buck over and over again on hot button social issues like abortion and gay rights. But more voters seem to have reconciling themselves to Buck’s stances. A dangerously high 49 percent agreed that Buck was "too extreme" two weeks ago. That number dropped to 47 percent this week.

The percentage of voters, though, who believe that Bennet is too closely allied with Obama remained steady at 51 percent.

Much of Buck’s strength comes from his 8-point advantage among independent voters.

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Obama’s Senate Seat Leaning GOP

Republican chances to capture the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama are improving markedly in final days of the election.

Rep. Mark Kirk doubled his 2-point lead in last week’s Fox News battleground state poll of likely voters, and now leads Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias 46 percent to 42 percent.

Giannoulias continues to suffer from Democratic defections to Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones, who drew 6 percent support, including 8 percent of Democrats.

In the state’s gubernatorial election, Republican state Sen. Bill Brady added a point to his margin over incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn from last week’s poll. Brady now leads Quinn by 6 points, 44 percent to 38 percent. In this race, the Democrat is suffering at the hands of two minor candidates, the Green Party’s Rich Whitney and independent Scott Lee Cohen.

Whitney and Cohen are taking a combined 10 percent of the vote, largely from Democrats or liberal-leaning voters. Cohen, a successful pawnbroker, won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor but was chased out of the race by Quinn and others after allegations of domestic violence emerged.

Kirk’s improving performance in the Senate race may spring from greater voter confidence in his character. Kirk, who was found to have embellished the list of military citations he received, was seen as honest and trustworthy by only 18 percent a month ago. That number has nearly doubled and is now at 34 percent, even with the percent who don’t trust him.

Giannoulias, meanwhile, has gone the other direction. Amid persistent questions about his family’s failed bank and its connections to organized crime, the percentage of voters who distrust Giannoulias raised 11 points in a month to 45 percent.

President Obama’s job approval rating in his home state remained steady at 46 percent, and his policies are viewed negatively. Sixty percent favor scrapping all (42 percent) or some (18 percent) of Obama’s national health insurance law.

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Murray and Rossi Down to the Wire in Washington

Incumbent Sen. Patty Murray has grabbed a narrow lead in the final Fox News battleground poll in Washington State.

Murray leads Republican challenger Dino Rossi by 2 points, 49 percent to 47 percent, in the poll of likely voters. Three weeks ago, Rossi led by 1 point and Murray led by 1 percent in late September. The race seems certain to head down to the wire.

The survey found voters with their minds made up – there was less than 1 percent still undecided and 95 percent of the supporters of each candidates said they were certain about their choice.

With her vanishingly small lead, Murray has reason to be concerned about how the leader of her party is faring her state. Forty percent of respondents approve of the job President Obama is doing, down from 44 percent two weeks ago.

The reason for the drop seems clear. Voters increasingly think that Obama’s policies have damaged the state’s economy. In September, 39 percent said Obama’s agenda had hurt the state’s economy. Three weeks ago the number was 42 percent. This week, it’s 45 percent.

Fifty-eight percent favored repealing all (40 percent) or parts (18) of the president’s national health insurance law.

Neither of the candidates in the Senate race is proving to be very well liked by voters. About half of voters had unfavorable views of both of them.

Murray has attacked Rossi on divisive cultural issues like abortion in an effort to lock up female voters, but so far, Rossi has held his own in that demographic group. He only trails Murray by 6 points among women, a fairly typical spread for a Republican.

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Kasich Holding on in Ohio

Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has been unable to close the gap between him and his Republican challenger, former Rep. John Kasich.

Strickland needed to see a breakthrough in this last Fox News Battleground state poll of likely Ohio voters, but instead still trails by 4 points, 48 percent to 44 percent.

And while President Obama paid yet another visit to try to help Strickland on Sunday, the poll, taken before Obama’s arrival, shows that the president is largely unpopular in the state.

Only 39 percent of respondents said they approved of the job Obama was doing and 48 percent though Obama’s policies had hurt the state’s already battered economy.

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Airports tighten security after bomb plot - CNN

Airliners sit on the tarmac at Dubai airport Oct. 31, a day after a parcel bomb was intercepted in Dubai originating in Yemen.NEW: Yemen needs help to fight al Qaeda, a top official saysNEW: A Yemeni student arrested and released over the plot says she is innocentNEW: South Korea boosts airport controls ahead of a summit of world leaders next weekSuspected al Qaeda bomber Hassan al-Asiri is connected to the plot, an official says

(CNN) -- Yemen is tightening security at all of its airports in the aftermath of a plot to send bombs from Yemen to the United States, the country's National Civil Aviation Security Committee said Monday.

"Every piece of cargo and luggage will go through extensive searching" at all of its airports, the agency said.

Cargo companies such as DHL, FedEx and UPS will be required to make more stringent checks before accepting any package, according to the committee.

But Yemen needs "a lot of help" to fight al Qaeda, an aide to the country's prime minister told CNN Monday.

"Al Qaeda has got a global sort of agenda, so you need global collaboration and regional collaboration," Mohammed Qubaty said.

"We need a lot of help as regards security information, logistics," and new ways to confront them, he said, even as he emphasized that Yemen does not want foreign troops on it soil.

"We have got our security and our armed forces on the ground there," he said, saying the country does not want to become another Iraq, presumably referring to the 2003 U.S. invasion.

The U.S. military commander credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq said Washington had been concerned about Yemen for some time.

"When I was the commander in Iraq we already saw the problems starting to loom in Yemen," Gen. David Petraeus told CNN.

He said that when he was in charge of all U.S. military forces in the region, "We did focus a great deal of additional attention on helping our Yemeni partners there and the events of recent days have shown why that was valid."

On Friday, authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Britain found two packages with explosives that were destined for synagogues in Chicago, Illinois.

The explosive found in the United Arab Emirates Friday may have traveled on passenger planes to get there, airline officials said Sunday.

Both explosives appear to have been designed to detonate on their own, without someone having to set them off, the top White House counterterrorism official told CNN.

"It is my understanding that these devices did not need somebody to detonate them," said John Brennan, President Barack Obama's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism.

South Korea is also stepping up security ahead of a summit of world leaders next week, it announced Monday.

Anybody who's associated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a subject of concern.
--John Brennan

Incheon International Airport will inspect all air cargo coming from destinations on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism, South Korean customs said Monday.

U.S. investigators believe al Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, 28, is linked to that package and another one found on the airplane in Britain's East Midlands Airport on Friday, a federal official, who was briefed by authorities, told CNN Sunday.

Al-Asiri, who is thought to be in Yemen, is a Saudi who was high on Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted published in February 2009. He is also believed to be the bomber who designed last year's failed Christmas Day underwear bomb.

Separately, an engineering student arrested in Yemen was released Sunday, along with her mother, according to her father, Mohammed Al-Samawi.

Human rights attorney Abdul-Rahman Barman earlier identified her as Hanan Al-Samawi, a fifth-year student at Sanaa University in the Yemeni capital.

A high-level source in the United Arab Emirates said Hanan Al-Samawi's name was found on the cargo manifest of the device found in Dubai.

She said Monday she was not guilty.

"I am totally innocent and there is no proof against me, and that's why I have been released," she said.

Authorities do not have any American suspects at this time, a U.S. official said.

Two schools in Yemen were being looked at in connection with the plot and had been on the radar of U.S. officials before, the official said.

The explosive device found in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was contained in a Hewlett-Packard printer, and had a motherboard originating from a mobile phone, but did not have a SIM card in it, the high-level source told CNN.

The device was professionally assembled, the source said. The motherboard was connected by a striker to the printer head and then to the cartridge, which was filled with explosives.

Authorities have the serial number of the motherboard and the printer, and are searching to see where it was sold, how it was paid for and what information they can glean about the people who performed those transactions, according to the source.

Authorities believe an explosive device found at the United Kingdom's East Midlands airport flew from Yemen to a Persian Gulf state, then to Cologne, Germany, the official said. The device was then transferred onto a UPS plane.

Investigators are still attempting to retrace the route of the Dubai device, according to the high-level official. Some believe it went to Doha, Qatar, on Qatar Airways, where it spent the night before traveling to Dubai the following day. However, it does appear the devices did fly on commercial passenger planes, the high-level official said.

Screening the devices would have been difficult, since printers normally contain computer parts and wires, according to Richard Quest, CNN's aviation correspondent.

The two devices found Friday look like they were put together by the same bomber who designed last year's failed Christmas Day underwear bomb, a U.S. government official told CNN.

"The thinking is it's the same person or group of people that built the underwear bomb, because of the way it's put together," said the official, who had been briefed by multiple U.S. authorities and law enforcement sources. "But this one is about four times as powerful."

American authorities are now endorsing British Prime Minister David Cameron's position that the explosives were designed to take down an airplane, the official said. However, a U.S. official said Sunday the United States has not drawn any conclusions on the intent of the bombs and whether they were intended to explode in flight, at the synagogues or somewhere else.

American and British authorities think al Qaeda's branch in Yemen is linked to the plot.

A key figure in the group is the American-born Yemeni militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whom U.S. authorities have linked to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and the man accused in the Christmas Day bomb attempt.

Brennan on Friday declined to name al-Awlaki specifically as a suspect.

"Anybody who's associated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a subject of concern," he said.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is sending six inspectors to Yemen to help improve cargo security, an official with the agency said Sunday.

"Even before this incident, 100 percent of identified high-risk cargo on inbound passenger planes was being screened," TSA Administrator John S. Pistole said in a statement Sunday, noting that security procedures will evolve based on the latest intelligence information.

Over the past several months, Yemen, which wants to be seen as a committed partner in the fight against terrorism, has launched several offensives against al Qaeda in its country, but has not captured al-Awlaki.

CNN's Caroline Faraj, Bharati Naik, Caroline Paterson, Jeanne Meserve, Mohammed Jamjoom, Susan Candiotti and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.

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4G WiMAX in the NYC Area: 10 Things You Need to Know - PC Magazine

Clearwire and Sprint just launched their "4G" WiMAX network in the New York metro area, along with Hartford and New Haven, CT and Tampa, FL. I've been testing WiMAX for more than two years now since its first launch in Baltimore, and I've been following Sprint and Clearwire as they cover the country. Here are 10 things you might not know about their launch.

Sprint, Clear, Time Warner, and Comcast 4G are all the same thing, so shop around. You'll see ads for Sprint, Clear, and Time Warner around New York City. They're all partners in one network, and you're getting the exact same 4G service from each company. They have different prices and contract terms. So shop around for the best deal if you're interested.

Expect speeds from 3-8 Mbits/sec down in good conditions. That's as fast as a middling home DSL or cable connection, and faster than many of Verizon's home DSL packages. Latency is longer than on DSL, so WiMAX isn't as good for gaming as wired Internet. But WiMAX is great for watching Web video, as long as you have a strong connection.

This is for home Internet, too. The 4G partners will also be selling home PC modems: big units that sit in your window, mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, and little USB sticks that attach to laptops. They're especially good for college students, subletters, and other people who move a lot. "But Time Warner already sells home Internet," you say. Yes, and this lets Time Warner sell home Internet into Cablevision's territories around New York.

There are no limits. Unlike other wireless Internet systems, the WiMAX carriers don't put a limit on how much data you can download a month. It's all you can eat. Go crazy.

Sprint 4G phones are ready to go. If you own an HTC EVO 4G or Samsung Epic 4G from Sprint, you've already been paying for 4G service. Now just pop down the "windowshade" on your phone's screen and turn on 4G. It'll work fine. Don't keep it on all the time, though, as it will kill your phone's battery. Use it when you need extra speed.

Clearwire and cable companies may start selling mobile phones, too. All of the WiMAX partners have said they want to sell mobile phones and Internet tablets in the future. So there may be even more shopping around to do.

Phone calls? That's complicated. There's no official way to make mobile phone calls over 4G, and 4G mobile phones just drop back to 3G to make calls. But Clearwire sells home voice-over-IP phone bundles that work on 4G in other cities.

Watch out for coverage holes. Clearwire is known for swiss-cheese coverage, and if you look at its official coverage map, it's much less than the entire New York metro area. And in our experience, even in some areas with coverage, weak connections mean slow speeds inside many buildings. Coverage will grow with time, of course, but make sure this works where you want it.

This isn't really 4G, but then again nothing is. Last week the ITU, the international body that decides which G is which, declared that no "4G" service being sold this or next year will actually be 4G. So 4G as we know it right now is a meaningless marketing term that anyone can apply to anything - it doesn't really mean anything.

T-Mobile's 3G can be as fast as Sprint's 4G. T-Mobile's HSPA+ system may be 3G, but in our tests last April, it was often as fast as Sprint's 4G. So if you're looking for the fastest mobile Internet connection, consider T-Mobile's G2 and myTouch 4G phones as well as the Sprint devices.

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