DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26943
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, February 2009
title: Archival Version

description: This special topic poll is 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. In this poll, fielded February 2-4, 2009, respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling the presidency, foreign policy, the economy, and the campaign against terrorism. Opinions were collected about whether the country was going in the right direction, whether the condition of the economy was good, how long the recession would last, and what could be done to get the United States out of the recession. Respondents were asked their opinions of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democrats in Congress, Republicans in Congress, and Congress as a whole. Several questions were asked about coal including questions that asked respondents whether they would approve of building plants that were powered by coal to generate electricity, whether it was a good idea to use coal to generate electricity, whether they thought doing so would contribute to global warming, whether they knew of any companies using technology to generate electricity from coal in a way that does not contribute to global warming, respondent's definition of "clean coal," and whether advertisements about "clean coal" technology had changed their opinion of whether it was possible to use coal to generate electricity in a way that was less likely to contribute to global warming. Other questions asked about the economic stimulus plan, how closely respondents had been following news about it, whether they approved of the federal government passing an economic stimulus bill, whether the bill would shorten the recession, and whether it was okay for the Democrats to pass the bill without the support of the Republicans in Congress. Additional topics addressed closing the United States prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, abortion, job security, global warming, the concept of "nature versus nurture," and where people obtain their sense of morality. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, religious preference, religious service attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
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, February 2009
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.Responses in the variable Q61 (ZIP Code) were blanked to protect respondent confidentiality.A truncated value label in variable EDUC was corrected.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.Variables Q44 and Q47 contain truncated value labels.