DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03747.v3
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #3, February 2003
title: Version 3

description: This poll 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. Respondents were asked to give their
opinions of President George W. Bush and his handling of the presidency,
foreign policy, the economy, and the situation with Iraq, as well as
their views of the United Nations and its handling of the situation with
Iraq. Those queried were asked which of the following issues should
receive the most Congressional attention in the coming year: fighting
the war on terror, improving the economy, or dealing with Iraq. A
series of questions addressed United States foreign relations, including
whether world leaders respected Bush and whether their perceptions
affected the United States' ability to accomplish foreign policy
objectives. Respondents were asked whether they considered Canada,
France, and Russia to be allies or enemies of the United States, and how
they viewed the United States' relations with European allies and with
the rest of the world. Respondents' familiarity with and understanding
of possible United States military action against Iraq was assessed.
Questions focused on whether the Bush administration was open to
non-militaristic options, whether Congress had asked enough questions of
the administration, whether military action should be taken without the
support of the allies and/or of United Nations approval, whether United
Nations weapons inspectors should be given more time, and whether the
removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was an appropriate use of
military action. In the event of war, respondents were asked whether
the threat of terrorism against the United States would increase,
whether the United States should help pay the cost of rebuilding Iraq
after the war, and whether the United States should maintain
peacekeeping troops in Iraq. Those polled were asked to assess the
threat of terrorism, including whether the Bush administration's foreign
policy made the United States a more likely target, the likelihood of a
terrorist attack against the United States in the next few months, and
whether the respondent was personally concerned about being a victim of
terrorism. Questions sought respondent views on whether Americans who
opposed a war with Iraq should be permitted to hold protest marches and
whether the views of American and worldwide protestors should be taken
into account by the Bush administration when making foreign policy
decisions. An additional question asked respondents if they were
bothered whenever Bush spoke publicly about his religious beliefs.
Background information on respondents includes age, gender, voter
registration and participation history, political party, political
orientation, marital status, religion, education, Hispanic descent,
race, children in household, and household income.
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 Monthly Poll #3, February 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.