DOI: 10.3886/icpsr24583.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Pre-State of the Union Speech Poll, January 2007
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded January 16-19, 2007, is a part of continuing series of monthly polls that
solicit public opinion on various political and social issues.
This poll was conducted prior to President Bush's State of the Union speech
on January 23, and focuses on his proposals
about the war with Iraq, including sending additional United States military forces to Iraq, President Bush's
and Congress' handling of the war with Iraq, and whether the United States did the right thing in going to war
with Iraq.
Respondents were also asked whether they approved of George W. Bush and the way he was handling the presidency
and other issues such as the economy, whether they approved of the way Congress was handling its job, and whether things in the country are on the right track.
Opinions were solicited on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the 2008 presidential candidates, whom
respondents would vote for if the 2008 Democratic and Republican primaries and the presidential election were held that
day, and whether an independent commission should be established to investigate and enforce ethics rules for members of
Congress.
Respondents were asked what was the most important problem they would like to see Bush and Congress deal with, whether they
trust Bush or Congress to do a better job handling issues such as the federal budget, and whether Bush or
Congress was taking a stronger leadership role in the government.
Additional questions addressed global warming, Medicare, the national minimum wage, embryonic stem cell research, and Iran.
Demographic information includes sex, age, race, education level, employment status, household income,
religious preference, marital status, whether anyone in the household was a military veteran,
type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), voter registration status, political party affiliation,
political philosophy, and the presence of children under 18 in the household.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were classified into one of 48 cells based on age, race, sex, and education. Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48 cells matched the actual population proportion according to the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
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 home at the time of the interview.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Pre-State of the Union Speech Poll, January 2007
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. Users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.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.System missing values were recoded to -1.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA.The variables CSA, METRODIV, CBSA, and MSA contain unknown codes.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, BLOCKCNT, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, ZIP, and NIELSMKT were converted from character to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (Zip Code) have been replaced with blank codes, and the variable SMSKEY (telephone number) was removed from the data set.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain diacritical marks.