DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03746.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, 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, the situation with Iraq, and the situation
with North Korea, 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,
dealing with Iraq, or dealing with North Korea. Respondents'
familiarity with and understanding of possible United States military
action against Iraq was assessed. They were asked whether the Bush
administration and/or Secretary of State Colin Powell had presented
adequate evidence that military action against Iraq was necessary, that
Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq was connected
with the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Respondents were asked whether the
removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the protection of a global
source of oil, and/or the prevention of Iraqi development of weapons of
mass destruction were appropriate uses of military action, whether
United Nations weapons inspectors should be given additional time,
whether diplomatic options had been exhausted, whether Iraq posed an
immediate danger to United States interests, and whether any of these
reasons would justify the potential loss of American and Iraqi lives.
In the event of war, respondents were asked to predict how long the war
would last, how many American soldiers would be killed, whether the war
would be fought in the air or through heavy ground combat, how the war
would affect the United States economy, whether the threat of terrorism
against the United States would increase, and whether the United States
should help pay the cost of rebuilding Iraq after the war. In addition,
respondents were asked whether Iraq, North Korea, or Al Qaeda posed the
greatest threat to world peace and stability. A series of question
focused on North Korea's announcement that it had been developing
nuclear weapons. Questions focused on whether the Bush administration
had a clear plan to deal with North Korea, whether the situation
required military action, could be contained with inspections, or did
not pose a threat to the United States, whether the respondent expected
and/or approved of military action against North Korea. Those polled
were asked to assess the war on terror, including the clarity of the
Bush administration's plan, the likelihood of a terrorist attack against
the United States in the next few months, who was winning the war,
whether government-issued warnings were useful, and whether those
warnings made the respondent feel more secure or more anxious.
Respondents were asked to consider how the possibility of war with Iraq
had affected their travel plans, specifically whether it had made them
more or less likely to fly, whether they had cancelled any trips out of
concern, the method of transportation to be used during upcoming travel,
whether they would consider overseas travel in the next six months, and
where they would like to go on such a trip. Their views were sought on
whether news coverage had been biased in favor of the war and whether
the media had been too easy on the Bush administration. Other questions
addressed the value of the manned space program in the United States and
whether funding for the program should be increased or decreased.
Additional items covered the state of the United States economy, whether
Hussein was personally involved in the 2001 terrorist attack against the
World Trade Center, and whether Americans who opposed a war with Iraq
should be permitted to hold protest marches. Backgroundinformation on
respondents includes age, gender, voter registration and participation
history, political party, political orientation, marital status,
religion, education, Hispanic descent, race, children in household,
military service, whether respondents had traveled abroad, 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/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, 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.