DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04477
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, March 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded March 10-11, 1996, 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 and his handling of the presidency and issues such as foreign
 policy. Respondents were asked to list the most important problem
 facing the country, whether they were generally optimistic about the
 future for the United States, and whether they approved of the way
 Congress was handling their job. Several questions asked whether
 respondents had been paying attention to the presidential campaign,
 which candidate they would vote for if the presidential election were
 being held that day, and whether they had favorable opinions of the
 candidates. Opinions were collected on who was the leader of the
 Republican party, whether the country is better off with a president
 who has a lot of government experience, and whether they approved of
 the way Bob Dole was handling his job as majority leader of the
 United States
 Senate. Various questions concerned Bob Dole's age and how it would
 affect him if elected president, whether his experience in government
 was a positive thing, and whether he made his accomplishments clear.
 Respondents were asked several questions about the presidential
 candidates and whether they thought each candidate was addressing
 issues that matter, whether the candidates were influenced by special
 interests, whether they had new ideas, and whether they would deal
 wisely with a difficult international crisis. A series of questions
 asked whether the current method of nominating presidential candidates
 allowed people to learn enough about the candidates, whether it gave
 too much power to the very first states, whether it cost too much
 money, and whether it produced the best candidates. Information was
 also collected on whether respondents considered themselves part of
 the conservative Christian movement and whether they listened to
 political call-in radio shows. Additional topics included a
 constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion, television political
 analysts, and negative political advertisements. Demographic
 variables include sex, race, age, household income, education level,
 political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter participation
 history and registration status, and type of residential area (e.g.,
urban or rural).
description: The data contain a weight variable that should be used for
analysis.
description: Stratified random digit dialing. 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, March 1996
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted,
 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The data
 and documentation for this study were acquired from the
 Roper Center for Public
 Opinion Research. (3) Value labels for unknown codes were added in
 variables Q4, Q5, Q11, Q16, Q17, Q19, Q20 and TIME_ZONE. (4) The
 variables AREA_CODE, EXCH_CODE, and LAST4_DIGITS were recoded for
confidentiality.