DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03984.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, December 2003
title: Version 3

description: This poll, conducted December 10-14 and 16, 2003, is part of
a continuing series of monthly polls that solicit opinions on
political and social issues. Views were sought on the 2004
presidential campaign and the war with Iraq, as well as President
George W. Bush and his handling of the presidency, foreign policy, and
the economy. Respondents were asked whether the country was going in
the right or wrong direction, whether President Bush legitimately won
the 2000 presidential election, whether it was acceptable to publicly
criticize him on terrorism issues, whether his tax cuts were good or
bad for the economy, and the condition of the national economy. A
series of questions asked whether the result of the war with Iraq and
the removal of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was worth the human
and economic costs, whether Iraq was an immediate threat to the United
States, how well the United States was doing to bring stability and
order to Iraq, how long troops should remain there, and whether the
United States won the war with Iraq. Several questions asked about the
effects of Saddam Hussein's capture on attacks against United States
troops in Iraq and threats of terrorism against the United States,
whether the United States could win the war in Afghanistan without the
capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and who was winning the war on
terrorism. Questions were posed regarding the progress made by the
Bush administration in reducing the cost of prescription drugs for the
elderly, whether it had a clear plan for rebuilding Iraq and the
campaign against terrorism, whether it was too quick or too slow in
getting the United States involved in a war with Iraq, and whether the
administration told everything it knew about the existence of weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the war. Respondents were also
polled on how much attention they paid to the 2004 presidential
campaign, whether they would vote for President George W. Bush or a
Democratic candidate for president, how certain they were about their
choice, which one issue candidates should discuss, whether candidates
should support or oppose the war in Iraq and gay marriage, and whether
candidates should have political experience inside or outside of
Washington. Opinions were solicited on former Vice-President Al Gore,
the Democratic presidential nominees (Carol Moseley-Braun, Wesley
Clark, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, Dennis
Kucinich, Joe Lieberman, Al Sharpton), and the effect of Al Gore's
endorsement of Howard Dean for president. Respondents were polled on
whether the Democratic or Republican party would do a better job of
ensuring a strong economy, dealing with terrorism, creating new jobs,
and rebuilding Iraq, and whether political leaders from middle class
backgrounds did a better job representing the middle class than those
from wealthy backgrounds. Views were sought on whether homosexuality
was immoral, whether it was a choice, whether homosexual couples
should be able to form legal civil unions and marry, and whether
marriage was mostly a legal or religious matter. Additional topics
addressed the use of steroids in professional sports, the recently
passed Medicare bill, whether the government should promote
traditional values, the public viewing of caskets of soldiers killed
in Iraq, and whether President Bush should have attended the funerals
of military personnel. Background variables include sex, age,
ethnicity, income, marital status, education, religion, religiosity,
number of phone lines in household, date of interview, political
orientation, political party affiliation, and voter registration and
participation history.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing using primary sampling
units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone
numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by
geographic region, area code, and size of place. Within households,
respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and
modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and
Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press,
1963).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, December 2003
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and
over having a telephone at home.
description: This collection has not been processed by ICPSR
staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this
collection in essentially the same form in which they were
received. When appropriate, documentation has been converted to
Portable Document Format (PDF), data files have been converted to
non-platform-specific formats, and variables have been recoded to
ensure respondents' anonymity.The ASCII data file may have been replaced if the previous version was formatted with multiple records per case. A frequency file, which contains the authoritative column locations, has been added to the collection.