DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03231
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #2, December 2000
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, conducted December 14-16, 2000, 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. The study was conducted to assess respondents' interest in and
 opinions about the 2000 presidential election. Respondents were asked
 to give their opinions of President Bill Clinton and his handling of
 the presidency, foreign policy, and the economy, as well as their
 opinions of both candidates, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor
 George W. Bush. Those polled were asked whether they participated in
 the last presidential election on November 7, 2000, whom they voted
 for, whether they were satisfied with the outcome of the election, and
 whether Bush legitimately won the election. A number of questions
 examined respondents' views about George W. Bush being president: what
 kind of president Bush would be, what worried them about Bush, whether
 Bush could be trusted to deal with all problems a president has to
 deal with, whether he cared about ordinary people, and whether he
 would be able to lead the country effectively, work with members of
 both parties, improve education, reduce costs of prescription drug
 coverage for seniors, reduce taxes, and strengthen and reform Social
 Security. The survey also queried respondents on the most important
 things they wanted Bush to accomplish, the way the Bush and Gore
 campaigns handled the election, how much trust they had in the United
 States Supreme Court, if they approved of its decision that stopped
 the manual recount in Florida, the effects of the presidential
 election controversy on American democracy, whether the vote count in
 Florida was fair and accurate, whom voters in Florida intended to vote
 for, and whether Gore withdrew from the race at the right time. The
 poll also elicited respondents' views on the economic situation in the
 country, the tax cut proposal, the budget surplus, federal funding to
 reward schools that improve students' performance, increase in defense
 spending, and a proposal that would allow individuals to invest a
 portion of their Social Security savings on their own. The survey also
 collected information on respondents' use of computers and the
 Internet. Those polled were asked whether they had access to a
 computer and to the Internet, and if so where, and if they had an
 e-mail address, whether they shopped on-line, whether they bought
 gifts during the 1999 and 2000 holiday seasons on the Internet, and if
 they were going to do so in the future. Internet shoppers also
 compared the on-line and store shopping experiences. Background
 information on respondents includes age, gender, education,
 race/ethnic identity, voter registration, political party affiliation,
 political orientation, marital status, number of children in the
household, and household income.
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 Monthly Poll #2, December 2000
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having telephones at home.
description: The codebook is provided by ICPSR 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 on the ICPSR Web site.