DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06625.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 1994
title: Version 1

description: This poll, conducted May 12-15, 1994, 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 and his handling of the presidency and issues such as crime and the situation in Haiti, and whether he was doing a better job handling the economy and foreign affairs than former President George H.W. Bush. Views were sought on Clinton's health care plan, the nomination of Stephen G. Breyer to the United States Supreme Court, and the ability of the federal government to solve problems. A series of questions addressed Clinton's handling of the Haitian refugees attempting to enter the United States by boat, whether he could be trusted to make the right decisions regarding the United States role in world affairs, and whether his handling of foreign affairs was creating anti-American feelings overseas. Those polled also gave their opinions of First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former Vice President Dan Quayle, Reform Party founder Ross Perot, and Senator Bob Dole, and specific questions asked whether Quayle and Perot were qualified to be president. Other questions focused on President Clinton's role in the Whitewater investigation, the sexual harassment charges made against him by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones, and whether respondents would vote for a Democrat or Republican candidate if the upcoming United States House of Representatives election were held that day. Additional topics covered life after death, spirits, souls, near-death experiences, reincarnation, heaven, hell, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and extraterrestrial life. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, labor union membership, employment status, household income, education level, perceived social class, type of residential area (e.g., urban, rural, etc.), religious preference, political party affiliation, political orientation, and voter registration status and participation history.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing of sex, race, age, and education.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created online analysis version with question text..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 1994, Dataset 0001
description: ABC News/Washington Post Poll Series
description: telephone interview 
 (1) The data available for download are not weighted, and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) Additional information about sampling, interviewing, and sampling error may be found in the codebook. (3) Original reports using these data may be found via the ABC News Polling Unit Web site and via the Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site. (4) A value label for an unknown code was added in variables Q61 and Q63. (5) The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.
description: Adults aged 18 and over living in households with telephones.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of interview.