DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04660
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #1, May 2006
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, conducted May 11-15, 2006, is part of a
continuing series of monthly polls 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 W. Bush was handling the presidency and issues such as the
federal budget deficit and the economy, whether they approved of the
way the United States Congress and their own representative were doing
their jobs, and which political party they trusted to handle the main
problems the country would face in the next few years. Several
questions asked how closely respondents were following the upcoming
November 2006 election, whether they would vote for a Democratic or
Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives,
the reasons for their choice, and which political party they hoped
would win control of Congress. Views were also sought on the war in
Iraq, and whether the Bush administration intentionally misled the
American public in making its case for war with Iraq. A series of
questions asked respondents whether the country, their state, and
their local community were headed in the right direction, how
satisfied they were with their life, and whether they felt optimistic
about the future. Those polled also gave their impressions of Senator
Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, and Senator John
McCain, as well as the likelihood that they would vote for Hillary
Clinton and John McCain if they ran for president in 2008. Additional
questions addressed Hillary Clinton's views on issues, whether she
possessed qualities such as leadership and trustworthiness, and
whether Bill Clinton had too much political influence over her. Other
topics addressed illegal immigration, Bush administration policies,
the recent increase in gasoline prices, and the secret collection of
domestic telephone records by the National Security Agency.
Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level,
household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy,
voter registration status, religious preference, and whether
respondents considered themselves born-again or evangelical
Christians.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
 used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic
 information from the Census to adjust for sampling and non-sampling
 deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were
 classified into one of 48 cells based on age, race, sex and
 education. Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48
 cells matched the actual population proportion according to the Census
Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
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: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #1, May 2006
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted
and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.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.System missing
values were recoded to -1.FIPS and ZIP variables were recoded for
confidentiality.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP,
CONGDIST, and BLOCKCNT were converted from character to numeric.According to the data collection instrument, code 3 in the variable
Q909 also included respondents who answered that they had attended a
technical school.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain
diacritical marks.The CASEID variable was created for use with
online analysis.