DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02845.v3
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #1, August 1999
title: Version 3

description: This poll, fielded August 1-3, 1999, 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
Bill Clinton, the United States Congress, First Lady Hillary Clinton,
Vice President Al Gore, Texas governor George W. Bush, and former New
Jersey senator Bill Bradley. Those queried were asked for their views
regarding the National Rifle Association (NRA), stricter laws
regulating the sale of handguns, and a ban on handgun sales to
everyone except law enforcement officials. A series of questions
addressed the respondent's knowledge of, access to, and familiarity
with computers, specifically the Internet. Areas of investigation
included the importance of knowing how to navigate and use the
Internet, whether parents knew as much as their children about the
Internet, whether the respondent had visited inappropriate sites, and
whether the benefits of the Internet outweighed the negative
aspects. Respondents with children who used the Internet were asked a
series of questions about their child's activities, including at what
age the child began using the Internet, whether the parent or the
child was most familiar with its capabilities, for what purpose the
child used the Internet, whether adult supervision was present when
the child was at the computer, and whether the parent had ever
installed a Web monitor to watch and/or restrict the child's Internet
sessions. An additional question addressed whether federal regulations
should be placed on the Internet. On another topic, respondents were
asked for their views on the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). Questions addressed the value of NASA's efforts
to land a man on the moon and space exploration program spending in
general, whether attempts should be made to send an astronaut to Mars,
and whether the respondent would travel to outer space if given the
opportunity. Views were also sought on the upcoming 2000 presidential
election, including the Democratic and Republican primaries/caucuses.
Respondents were asked for whom they intended to vote: Gore, Bradley,
Bush, Arizona senator John McCain, former Vice President Dan Quayle,
publisher Steve Forbes, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, Family
Research Council president Gary Bauer, talk show host Alan Keyes, Utah
senator Orrin Hatch, former American Red Cross president Elizabeth
Dole, and former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander. A series of
questions addressed the relationship between President Clinton and
former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, including whether this
relationship was a personal or a private matter, whether Congress
handled the impeachment process appropriately, whether the outcome was
acceptable, and how the respondent viewed the recent indictment of
Pentagon employee Linda Tripp by a Maryland grand jury for breaking
wiretapping laws when she taped telephone conversations between
herself and Lewinsky. A final question asked respondents what they
believed to be the reason for Mark Barton's July 29, 1999, shooting
spree in Atlanta, GA, that resulted in the death of his family and
nine office employees. Background information on respondents includes
age, sex, race, political party, political orientation, marital
status, education, religion, Hispanic descent, voter registration and
participation history, gun ownership, stock market investments,
computer access, age of children in household, and family income.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll #1, August 1999
description: (1) 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,
hardcopy documentation has been converted to machine-readable form and
variables have been recoded to ensure respondents' anonymity. (2) The codebook
is provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was
developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.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.