DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26831
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, December 2008
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded December 4-8, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Opinions were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency, whether things in the country were on the right track, respondents' rating of the condition of the economy, and whether they thought the economy was getting better or worse. Respondents were asked their opinions of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama. Several questions also addressed the Obama Administration including how confident respondents were in Barack Obama's ability to make the right decisions regarding the country, whether respondents felt optimistic about the next four years with Barack Obama as president, and whether respondents approved of Obama's cabinet selections and his nomination of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Respondents were asked their opinions about how well things were going for the United States' efforts to restore order to Iraq, how well they thought the war in Afghanistan was going for the United States, and the likelihood that there would be another terrorist attack in the United States within a few months. Other questions addressed whether respondents approved of the federal government providing financial assistance to banks and other financial institutions, the big three auto makers, and homeowners in attempts to improve the economy. Respondents were also asked whether the government should have a say on how the auto companies are managed, whether the government should require the auto makers to build more cars that use alternative fuels if they received financial aid, and whether or not the auto makers going out of business would have a major impact on the nation's economy. Other topics included the housing market, the job market, job security, and respondents' personal finances. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, political party affiliation, political philosophy, household income, voter registration status and participation history, and religious preference.
description: The data contain weight variables that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.
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. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. 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, December 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.Responses in the variable Q63 (ZIP Code) were blanked to protect respondent confidentiality.A truncated value label in variable EDUC was corrected.