DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03756
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #3, March 2003
title: Archival Version

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 on the United Nations and its handling of the
situation with Iraq and other international problems. Respondents were
asked to assess their confidence in Bush's ability to make the right
decisions about the situation in Iraq and the use of military force to
remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. Their views were
sought on whether there was sufficient evidence that military action
was necessary, whether diplomatic solutions had been exhausted, and
whether United Nations weapons inspectors should be given additional
time. A series of questions focused on the United Nations Security
Council, including whether military action should be taken without
the support of the United Nations, whether the United States should
ask for United Nations consideration if a "no" vote was anticipated,
and how the situation with Iraq would affect the United Nations'
ability to influence future international matters. Those polled were
asked about the implications of a war with Iraq: whether the removal
of Hussein was worth the potential loss of American life, how a war
would impact the United States economy, and whether the threat of
terrorism against the United States would increase. Additional
questions addressed the lack of French support for United States
military action against Iraq, whether world leaders respected Bush,
and whether Bush's mention of his religious beliefs when discussing
possible military action against Iraq was appropriate. Background
information on respondents includes age, gender, voter registration
and participation history, political party, political orientation,
marital status, religion, importance of religion in daily life,
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, March 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.