DOI: 10.3886/icpsr22165.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, December 2006
title: Version 1

description: This poll, conducted December 7-11, 2006, is part of a continuing series of monthly polls that solicit public opinion on various political and social issues. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling his job as president and issues such as the economy, whether they approved of the way members of United States Congress and their own representative were handling their jobs, and to rate the condition of the national economy. Views were sought on the upcoming switch to Democratic control of Congress, what was the most important problem for President Bush and Congress to deal with in the next year and whether they trusted President Bush or Congress more to handle these problems. Several questions asked whether Congress should hold hearings on how the Bush Administration handled issues related to the war with Iraq and the United States' campaign against terrorism, whether the war with Iraq was worth fighting, whether the number of United States military casualties in Iraq was acceptable, and whether the war in Iraq has contributed to the long-term security of the United States. A series of questions asked whether the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq until civil order is restored there, whether the United States was winning the war in Iraq, whether respondents would describe the situation in Iraq as a civil war, and whether the United States should hold direct talks with Syria and Iran about the situation in Iraq. Respondents were asked whether they supported certain plans and decisions, such as the Iraq Study Group report, changing the primary mission of United States forces to supporting and training the Iraqi army, or reducing United States military and financial support of the Iraqi government. Several questions asked for respondents' opinions of current political leaders and the 2008 presidential candidates, which candidate they would vote for if the 2008 Democratic and Republican primaries were held that day, and whether a presidential candidate's gender, race, or religion would affect their vote. Additional topics included immigration, privacy rights, and whether respondents were hopeful about the upcoming year for themselves and the world. Demographic variables include sex, age, religion, race, education level, household income, whether anyone in the household was a military veteran, voter registration and participation history, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural).
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 non-sampling 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 Poll, December 2006
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 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.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.FIPS and ZIP variables were recoded for confidentiality.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, BLOCKCNT, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, ZIP, and NIELSMKT were converted from character to numeric.Value labels for unknown codes were added in the Q911, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, and MSA variables.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain diacritical marks.