DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03786.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #4, March 2003
title: Version 3

description: This poll 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 George W. Bush and his handling of the
presidency, foreign policy, and the economy. In addition, respondents
were asked whether they approved of actions taken against Iraq,
whether President Bush did everything to avoid war with Iraq, and
whether the United States or any country is justified in attacking
another country without first being attacked. Respondents' opinions
were elicited on various aspects of the war in Iraq: whether the
removal of Saddam Hussein from power was worth the potential loss of
life, whether the United States was making a mistake getting involved,
level of concern over and the likelihood of a possible terrorist
attack, whether the United States and local governments were prepared
for another terrorist attack, whether the war would be fairly quick
and successful or long and costly, potential loss of life, and when
the respondent became convinced the United States would take military
action. Respondents were also asked whether the Bush administration
had clearly explained the cost of the war, the duration, and potential
loss of life, whether they believed the Bush administration had a
clear plan for rebuilding Iraq, whether the respondent felt proud
about the actions of the United States, and whether the military was
holding back information. A number of questions were posed regarding
the Republican and Democratic parties: which of the two would ensure a
strong economy, build a strong military defense, and make the right
decisions regarding terrorism. Respondents were asked whether
Democratic presidential candidates should speak out against the war,
whether Americans who opposed the war should hold protest marches or
rallies, and whether presidential candidates should continue to
campaign while the war continued. Respondents were asked whether the
war bothered them, how much the war affected their news viewing, and
what their impressions were of the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
Finally, respondents were asked whether they or a family member served
in the military. A variety of demographic information was elicited,
including political party affiliation, political view (liberal,
moderate, or conservative), marital status, religion, education, age,
Hispanic descent, race, income, and additional phone lines.
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 #4, March 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.