DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26142.v1
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #1, January 2008
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded January 30-February 2, 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. 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, the condition of the national economy, and how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign. Registered voters were asked whether they were more likely to vote in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus in their state, which candidate they supported and why, their opinions of the candidates, and whether respondents thought that the race and gender of a presidential candidate would affect their vote. Views were also sought on former president Bill Clinton, the effects of his involvement in Hillary Clinton's campaign, and opinions about the amount of influence he would have on her decisions if she were elected president. Other topics addressed the war in Iraq, personal finances, how respondents usually got their news, and how often they used the Internet to get information about the 2008 presidential election. Additional questions asked respondents whether they had experienced mostly good or bad luck so far in their lives, whether they ever went shopping to make themselves feel better when sad or stressed, their companionship preferences if stranded on a deserted island, which team they wanted to win the 2008 Super Bowl, and the likelihood that they would eat pizza during the game. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, 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 Monthly Poll #1, January 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.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.A truncated value label in the variable EDUC was corrected, and code 38 in variable Q2 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.