DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03825
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #1, May 2003
title: Archival Version

description: This poll conducted, May 9-12, 2003, is part of a
continuing series of monthly polls that solicit opinions on political
and social issues. Respondents were asked to give their opinions of
President George W. Bush and his overall job performance, as well as
his handling of military action against Iraq, foreign policy issues,
and the economy. Views were elicited concerning whether George Bush
exhibited strong leadership qualities, whether he could be categorized
as more of a liberal, moderate, or conservative, whether he cared
about people like the respondent, whether he made the right decisions
about the economy, the degree to which the condition of the economy
was due to his economic decisions, whether his policies favored the
rich, the middle class, or the poor or if everyone was treated equally
according to his economic policies, the amount of influence business
had on his policies, the amount of influence the religious right had
on his policies, the legitimacy of Bush's 2000 presidential election
victory, and the appropriateness of his landing on an aircraft carrier
in a fighter jet to deliver a speech. Respondents were asked about the
most important issue facing the United States, the likelihood of a
major terrorist attack on the United States, who was winning the war
against terrorism, the national economy and whether it was improving,
getting worse, or staying the same, whether the economy was better or
worse than two years ago, whether the respondent's financial situation
was better or worse than two years ago, how concerned the respondent
was that a member of their family would lose his or her job in the
next year, and the state of relations between the United States and
European countries compared to two years ago. Respondents were also
asked to assess the degree of progress made by the Bush administration
on improving the economy, creating new jobs, reducing prescription
costs, improving public schools, ensuring Social Security, and
developing a plan to protect the United States from terrorism.
Specific questions concerning the economy addressed the seriousness of
the state budget problems, whether cutting taxes or reducing the
federal deficit would have a greater positive effect on the economy,
the effect of the 2001 tax cuts on the economy, the respondent's
knowledge of the current tax cut proposal, and the probable effects of
a tax cut on the economy. Respondents were asked for their opinions of
the Democratic and Republican parties, whether each party had a clear
plan for the future, whether respondents were going to vote Democratic
or Republican in the 2004 presidential election, if they could name
any of the Democratic presidential candidates, and regardless of
respondents' voting history, their opinions on which party was more
likely to foster a strong economy, strengthen military defenses,
create new jobs, make medication more affordable for the elderly,
improve public education, improve the health care system, institute a
fair tax system, and protect the environment. Respondents were polled
on whether the health care system needed to have slight improvements,
fundamental changes, or a complete overhaul, whether it was more
important to cut taxes or to ensure that every resident had access to
health care, how knowledgeable they were about Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and how it might affect their family,
whether children and teenagers were more overweight than when the
respondent was young, the reasons for the increase in overweight
children, whether their children ate more, less, or the same amount of
fast food as they did at that age, and whether the increased numbers
of overweight children and teenagers constituted a major health
problem. Specific questions addressed military action in Iraq.
Respondents were queried on their knowledge of business contracts to
rebuild Iraq, the likelihoodthat those contracts would go to the most
qualified business without regard to political support or affiliation,
whether the war was worth the costs if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was
not found, whether Hussein was personally involved in the September
11, 2001, attacks, whether the war was worth the costs if weapons of
mass destruction were not found in Iraq, whether the war against Iraq
was part of the war against terrorism and if it was, whether it was a
minor or major part, whether the Bush administration accurately
estimated the number of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and
whether the Bush administration overexaggerated the number of weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq to build support for the war. Other
questions focused on whether the United States should pay for the cost
of rebuilding Iraq, whether the United States or the United Nations
should lead the establishment of a new government in Iraq, whether the
United States or the United Nations should lead the restoration of
order and basic services in Iraq, and whether the United States should
have enlisted the help of the United Nations to manage the current
situation in Iraq. Background variables include age, sex, ethnicity,
2002 household income, education, religious orientation, marital
status, political orientation, political ideology, voter status,
whether the respondent voted in the 2000 United States presidential
election, if the respondent was prevented from voting, and if the
respondent voted, for whom they voted (Democrat Al Gore, Republican
George W. Bush, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, or Green Party
candidate Ralph Nader).
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 #1, May 2003
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
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' anonymity.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.