DOI: 10.3886/icpsr30203
title: Washington Post Monthly Poll, March 2010
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded March 23-26, 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 1,000 adults was surveyed. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling the presidency, the economy, health care, and the federal budget deficit, and whether they thought the country was headed in the right direction. Respondents were queried on whether they approved of the way the United States Congress was doing its job, whether they approved of the way Nancy Pelosi was handling her job as Speaker of the House, whether they approved of the way Harry Reid was handling his job as Majority Leader, and which party they trust more to do a better job in coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years. Respondents were asked whether they supported or opposed the changes to the health care system that have been enacted by Congress and the Obama Administration, whether they have health insurance, whether they thought health care costs would increase or decrease as a result of the changes to the health care system, and whether they thought these changes to the health care system would increase or decrease the federal budget deficit. Information was collected on whether the respondents thought the health care plan created too much government involvement in the nation's health care system, whether respondents had a good basic understanding of the upcoming changes to the health care system, whether respondents have contacted their senators or representatives in Congress about the health care reform, and whether they thought these changes to the health care system represent a major change in the direction of the country. Respondents were queried on whether they would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in the upcoming election for United States House of Representatives, whether respondents thought it would be a good thing or a bad thing if control of Congress switched from Democrats to Republican, whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Tea party, and Sarah Palin. Finally respondents were asked a number of question about the United States Post office, whether they thought the post office would still be used by most people at the end of the century, and whether respondents thought abortion should be legal or illegal in all cases.
Demographic variables include sex, age, race, household income, education level, political party affiliation, political philosophy, political ideology, religious preference, 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.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Monthly Poll, March 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, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (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, and METRODIV.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA. Original reports using these data may be found via the ABCNews Polling Unit Web site and via the Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.