DOI: 10.3886/icpsr24608.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, June 2008
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded June 12-15, 2008, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. A national sample of 1,125 adults was surveyed, including an oversample of African Americans, for a total of 201 African American respondents. Views were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency and whether the country was moving in the right direction.
Respondents were asked how closely they were following the 2008 presidential race, the likelihood that they would vote in the general election in November, for whom they would vote if the presidential election were held that day, their opinions of the candidates, and the most important issues in their vote for president. Those who identified themselves as Democrats were asked how they felt about the outcome of the Democratic primary, whether they had wanted Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, and who Obama should choose as a vice presidential running mate. Respondents were also asked whether they would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate for United States House of Representatives if the election were held that day, and to give their impressions of the spouses of the presidential candidates, Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain. Additional topics addressed abortion, the war in Iraq, health care coverage, alternative energy, gun ownership, race relations in the United States, increases in gasoline prices, and a recent United States Supreme Court ruling that noncitizens suspected of terrorism who are being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be allowed to challenge their detentions in the United States civilian court system. Information was also collected on whether respondents thought African Americans living in their community experienced racial discrimination, whether they had a close friend of a different race, whether they themselves had feelings of racial prejudice, and whether they considered themselves a feminist. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, education level, religious preference, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weights were derived using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Until 2008 ABC News used a cell-based weighting system in which respondents were classified into one of 48 or 32 cells (depending on sample size) based on their age, race, sex and education; weights were assigned so the proportion in each cell matched the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey. To achieve greater consistency and reduce the chance of large weights, ABC News in 2007 tested and evaluated iterative weighting, commonly known as raking or rim weighting, in which the sample is weighted sequentially to Census targets one variable at a time, continuing until the optimum distribution across variables (again, age, race, sex and education) is achieved. ABC News adopted rim weighting in January 2008. Weights are capped at lows of 0.2 and highs of 6. The oversample of African Americans was weighted to their correct share of the national population.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview. This poll included an African American oversample. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, June 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (ZIP Code) have been replaced with blank codes.System-missing values were recoded to -1.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain diacritical marks.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables MSA, CSA, CBSA, and METRODIV.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA. Original reports using these data may be found via the ABC News Polling Unit Web site and via the 
Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.