DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03823.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, April 2003
title: Version 3

description: This poll, conducted April 11-13, 2003, is part of a
continuing series of monthly polls that solicit public opinion on
political and social issues. Respondents were asked to give their
opinions of President George W. Bush and his overall job performance,
his handling of military action against Iraq, his expectations and
priorities for the military action, and his handling of the
economy. Respondents were asked whether Bush was paying as much
attention to the economy as to the war in Iraq, whether he was
respected by other foreign leaders, whether his administration had a
clear plan concerning the war in Iraq, and whether his administration
leaned toward military solutions when dealing with international
crises and events. Respondents were also asked to rate the national
economic situation, to provide their opinions on whether the economy
was improving, and to comment on whether they kept track of world
events. Respondents were queried on the most important issue facing
the United States, whether the country was headed in a positive
direction, whether they thought relations with European countries were
better or worse compared to two years ago, whether they thought
relations with non-European countries were better or worse compared to
two years ago, which party (Democratic or Republican) was better at
handling issues concerning the military, the economy, and terrorism,
and whether they or an immediate family member had been or was
currently a member of the United States military. Other questions
focused on the policy of taking military action against a country that
may pose a threat to the United States but has not taken any action
yet, the involvement of the United States in changing foreign
dictatorships, the appropriate role of the United States in
international conflicts, whether North Korea was a threat to the
United States, and whether any country posed a serious threat to the
United States. Opinions were elicited on the effects of military
action in Iraq, whether respondents approved of military action in
Iraq, whether they felt the potential benefits were worth the possible
costs of military and civilian casualties, how they viewed Iraq before
the war, whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, why no
weapons of mass destruction had been found, whether not finding
weapons of mass destruction and/or Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein meant
the United States did not win the war, whether Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein was alive, whether Saddam Hussein was involved in the
September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, whether the United
States government correctly assessed the amount of resistance the
military would encounter from the Iraqi army, whether the number of
casualties experienced by the United States military and Iraqi
civilians were within expectations, how they viewed the short-term
future of Iraq, and whether the United States was providing adequate
humanitarian aid to the Iraqi citizens. Respondents were queried for
their opinions on the impact of removing Saddam Hussein from power in
the Middle East, whether the war against Iraq would bring democracy to
the Middle East, the impact of the war against Iraq on the image of
the United States in the Arab world, expectations of how long the
United States military would be in Iraq, the extent of responsibility
the United States had in Iraq, who was winning the war against
terrorism, whether the Iraqi citizens were resentful toward the United
States or happy that Saddam Hussein was removed from power, whether
the war against Iraq was part of the war on terrorism, whether the war
against Iraq would increase the threat of terrorism against the United
States, and whether success in Iraq would increase the likelihood that
the United States military would be sent to intervene in North Korea,
Syria, or Iran. Background variables include, age, sex, political
orientation,political ideology, marital status, religious
orientation, education, ethnicity, family income in 2002, whether the
respondent voted in the 2000 United States presidential election, and
if so, for whom they voted.
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/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, April 2003
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
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, 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.