DOI: 10.3886/icpsr32547.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, December 2010
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded December 9-12, 2010, 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 1,001 adults was surveyed. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling the presidency, the economy, the war in Afghanistan, and the federal budget deficit. They were also asked whether they trusted President Obama or the Republicans in Congress more to do a better job with the economy, the federal budget deficit, the threat of terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan, health care reform, helping the middle class, and handling taxes. They were queried whether they thought the switch of control of the House of Representative from Democrats to Republicans was a good thing, whether the recession has hurt them financially, whether they thought the economy has begun to recover, whether anyone living in their household had been laid off or lost their job in the last year, and whether any close friends or immediate family members had been laid off or lost their job. They were asked what they thought was the best approach to the health care reform law, whether Obama was sincere in wanting to reduce the federal budget deficit, whether efforts to reduce the federal deficit should be taken now, and the best way to reduce the federal budget deficit. They were asked whether homosexuals who do not publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military, whether the war in Afghanistan had contributed to the long term security of the United States, whether they supported the increase of United States and NATO forces, and whether United States forces should start withdrawing sooner than summer 2011. They were also queried on whether they heard about the released classified documents pertaining to the State Department and United States diplomacy by WikiLeaks and whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be arrested and charged with a crime for releasing these confidential documents. Respondents were also asked for whom they would vote for in the next presidential election. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, household income, education level, political party affiliation, political philosophy, political ideology, religious preference, whether they voted in the last election, and whether the respondent is 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.
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. Field work for most of ABC's United States polling is carried out by TNS of Horsham, PA, using a dual-frame sample design covering both landline telephone and cell phone-only respondents, with samples produced by Survey Sampling Inc. of Shelton, CT.
description: Datasets: DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, December 2010
description: Persons aged 18 years 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, STCODE, CONGDIST, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County), ZIP (ZIP Code), and QD1A (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.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables MSA, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, and Q911.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.