DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03710.v2
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, October 2002
title: Version 2

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, and the economy. In addition, respondents were asked to give their opinions of their representatives in Congress and the importance of these issues: the possible war in Iraq, the economy, political affiliation, and gun control. Respondents were asked if they believed that Democrats or Republicans had clear plans for the United States should either party gain control of Congress, and if they had knowledge of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and the possibility of military action in Iraq. Opinions on the situation in Iraq were elicited: whether military action would and should be taken, when military action should be taken, if the potential loss of American lives was worth the removal of Saddam Hussein, how they felt about the loss of Iraqi civilian lives and long-term military engagement, and whether terrorism would increase or decrease as a result of military action. Respondents were asked to give opinions of both the Republican and Democratic parties, particularly whether each party protected the interests of "ordinary" Americans or large corporations, and which party would more likely lead the United States to prosperity, make the right decisions regarding Social Security, strengthen the military, deal with terrorism, make prescription drugs affordable for the elderly, and do a better job dealing with gun control. Respondents were then asked to give opinions regarding terrorism: whether the Bush Administration had a clear plan to counter it, the likelihood of another terrorist attack within the next few months, concern for terrorism in their local area, how well the war on terrorism was going, Americans' sense of safety, respondents' personal sense of safety, and whether the federal government had done all it could. Respondents were also asked about finances: if their family's financial situation was better or worse compared to two years ago, whether respondents invested in stock, whether they participated in employer-sponsored 401k plans, the value of their 401k plans, and their level of concern over the possible loss of their job within the next year. Respondents were then asked a variety of questions concerning their opinions on the National Rifle Association, intake of caffeinated beverages, and voting behavior. Respondents were asked whom they voted for president and which party they voted for the House of Representatives, the last time they had voted, the last time they had registered to vote, party affiliation, and views on political matters. Background information on respondents includes whether they owned a firearm, marital status, religion, education, age, Hispanic descent, race, how long they had lived in their present community, income, and additional phone lines.
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 variable labels and/or value labels..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: CBS News/New York Times Poll Series
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' privacy.
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.
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over having a telephone at home.
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).