DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26146
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, March 2008
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded March 28 to April 02, 2008, is a 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 George W. Bush was handling the presidency and the economy, the most important problem facing the nation, and how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign. Several questions addressed the economy and sought opinions on the condition of the national economy, the most important economic problem facing the nation, whether the United States was in an economic recession and whether the economy was getting better or worse. Registered voters were asked whether they were more likely to vote in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus, which candidate they supported and why, who they expected to win the Democratic nomination, their opinions of the candidates, and for whom they would vote if the election was held that day. Views were also sought on Senator Barack Obama's former minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright's statements and whether his statements affected the respondent's opinions of Obama. Respondents were asked how concerned they were about several aspects of their personal finances including being able to afford health care, housing, and retirement costs, college tuition, and whether they were concerned about their job security. Respondents were also asked about their biggest economic concern, whether they were getting ahead financially, whether they had made cutbacks in their spending, and whether rises in food prices was affecting them. Additional questions asked respondents whether they had any close friends or relatives who filed for bankruptcy or had a foreclosure in the past year, whether they had any money invested in the stock market, and whether they thought investment in the stock market was safe. Other topics addressed the war in Iraq, the home mortgage crisis, estate and income tax, trade restrictions, and race relations. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, employment status, marital status, whether respondents had children under 18 years of age, household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. According 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. 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, March 2008
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.Variable Q10 contains truncated value labels.Truncated value labels in the variable EDUC were corrected, and code 38 in variable Q5 was edited to refer to the president in office at the time of the survey.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.