DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03755.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, March 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 on the United
Nations and its handling of the situation with Iraq. Their views were
sought on which of the following issues should receive the most
congressional attention in the coming year: the economy, fighting the
war on terror, handling the situation in Iraq, or dealing with the
situation in North Korea. Respondents were asked to assess their
confidence in Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the
situation in Iraq and the use of military force to remove Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein from power. Their views were sought on
whether there was sufficient evidence that military action was
necessary, whether Congress was asking enough questions, whether
diplomatic solutions had been exhausted, and whether the United States
should do what it believed to be right, despite the lack of a
supporting United Nations resolution, the views of allies such as
France and Russia, and the views of anti-war protesters. A series of
questions focused on the motivation of the Bush administration and on
the recent press conference, in which Bush outlined the United States
position on Iraq. Questions focused on the seriousness of the Iraqi
threat, whether weapons inspectors had made progress, needed
additional time, and had received the cooperation of Iraq, and which
of the following they believed to be of greatest interest to the Bush
administration: ending the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction,
removing weapons of mass destruction, removing Saddam Hussein from
power, protecting the supply of oil to the United States, or Bush's
personal desire to accomplish what his father's administration failed
to do. Respondents were asked if any of these objectives were worth
the potential casualties and deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi
civilians. Those polled were asked about the implications of a war
with Iraq: whether the removal of Hussein would lead to greater
stability in the Middle East, how a war would impact the United States
economy, whether the threat of terrorism against the United States
would increase, and whether a clear plan existed for rebuilding Iraq
after a war. In response to North Korea's announcement that they had
developed nuclear weapons, respondents were asked for their opinions
on the seriousness of this situation. In addition, respondents were
asked whether Iraq or North Korea posed the greater threat to world
peace and stability. Background information on respondents includes
age, gender, voter registration and participation history, political
party, political orientation, marital status, religion, education,
Hispanic descent, race, 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, March 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.