DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04504.v1
title: CBS News State of the Union/War in the Middle East Poll, January 1991
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded January 27-28, 1991, 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 whether they approved of the way President
 George H.W. Bush was handling the presidency and issues such as
 foreign policy and the economy. Respondents were asked how well
 members of the United States Congress were doing their jobs, whether
 the country was moving in the right direction, and the condition of
 the national economy. Views were sought on the Persian Gulf War
 including whether the United States did the right thing in taking
 military action against Iraq, the expected length of the war and
 number of American casualties, and the effect of the war on the
 economy, taxes, gasoline prices, and domestic programs. In addition,
 the survey posed a series of questions dealing with media coverage of
 the war and the possible holding back of information by the military,
 the involvement of women in ground combat, the personal effects of the
 war on respondents, and concern about a possible terrorist attack in
 the United States. Opinions were sought on the country of Israel, Vice
 President Dan Quayle, Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and
 whether the United States should maintain good relations with the
 Soviet Union or support Lithuania's efforts to break away from the
 Soviet Union. Respondents were also asked to compare President Bush's
 first two years in office with former President Reagan's, and whether
 they would vote for Bush or the Democratic candidate in the
 presidential election in 1992. Other topics addressed the job of
 homemaking, and female respondents whose primary work was done in the
 home or caring for children were asked how they preferred their
 occupation to be called. Demographic variables include sex, race,
 age, employment status, marital status, household income, education
 level, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), military
 service, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and voter
registration status and participation history.
description: The data contain weight variables that should be used for
analysis.
description: Stratified random digit dialing. 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 State of the Union/War in the Middle East Poll, January 1991
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted,
 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The
 original data file contained three records per case and was
 reformatted into a data file with one record per case. (3) The data
 and documentation for this study were acquired from the
 Roper Center for Public
 Opinion Research. (4) The variables AREA_CODE and EXCH_CODE were
 recoded for confidentiality. (5) The variable INTERVIEW_ID was
converted from character to numeric.