DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02720.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #4, January 1999
title: Version 3

description: This poll, fielded January 30-February 1, 1999, 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
Bill Clinton, the United States Congress, Vice President Al Gore,
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Henry Hyde, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, former White House
intern Monica Lewinsky, and the Republican and Democratic
parties. Respondents were next asked a series of questions comparing
the two main political parties, including which party had better ideas
for both solving the nation's current problems and for leading the
country into the 21st century, as well as which party was better at
upholding traditional family values. Opinions were also elicited as to
which party was the more likely to make the right decisions about
Social Security, to improve education and the health care system, and
to reduce taxes and crime. Respondents were also asked how they would
recommend that Congress use the budget surplus projected over the
coming years, including cutting taxes, paying down the national debt,
and preserving programs like Medicare and Social Security. Particular
emphasis was given in this poll to the Senate impeachment trial of
President Clinton. Respondents were queried as to how closely they
were following the news of the trial, whether they approved of the
Senate's handling of the matter, and what their expectations were for
the length of the trial. Opinions were elicited on the need for
witness testimony, whether President Clinton's actions were serious
enough to warrant removal from office, and the constitutional
necessity of a final Senate vote. Other questions focused on each
political party's role in the impeachment matter, whether the parties
were working in a partisan manner, whether the parties' actions would
help or hurt their respective images and prospects in the 2000
election, and whether House or Senate members of each party handled
themselves more responsibly. Respondents were also asked whether they
had learned anything new from the trial, whether the Senate should
take into account public opinion when making their decisions, how the
respondent wanted his or her senator to vote, and whether the
respondents cared about the outcome. Finally, respondents were asked
for their predictions as to whether President Clinton would be removed
from office and, if not, whether he could still remain effective as
president. Attention was also directed toward the Republican party, in
terms of whether it was out of touch with the American people--or even
rank and file Republicans--on the impeachment matter, and whether the
party was too conservative. Background information on respondents
includes age, race, sex, education, religion, marital status,
political party, political orientation, recent voting history, and
family income.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #4, January 1999
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, hardcopy documentation has been converted
to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure
respondents' anonymity. (2) The codebook is provided 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 through the ICPSR Website on the
Internet.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.