DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04479
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #2, September 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded September 16-18, 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 and illegal drug use. A series of questions addressed the 1996
 presidential election, including how much attention respondents were
 paying to the election, for whom they would vote, which candidate they
 thought would win in the November election regardless of whom they
 were voting for, and which candidate would be better at reducing crime
 and drug use. Opinions were solicited on presidential candidates Bill
 Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot, vice presidential candidates Al
 Gore, Jack Kemp, and Pat Choate, the Democratic and Republican
 parties, and whether or not the United States was going in the right
 direction. Respondents were asked questions about Iraq and the
 Persian Gulf War and whether they favored sending ground troops and
 planes to Kuwait for an attack on Iraq. Views were sought on the
 Persian Gulf War, whether President Clinton explained the situation in
 Iraq well enough, and whether the United States should have continued
 fighting Iraq until Saddam Hussein was removed from power. Additional
 topics addressed the national economy, presidential debates, and
 illegal drug use. Demographic variables include sex, race, age,
 household income, education level, type of residential area (e.g.,
 urban or rural), length of time living at current residence, political
 party affiliation, political philosophy, voter participation history
 and registration status, and whether respondents had a child entering
high school in 1996.
description: The data contains weight variables that should be used for
 analysis. The probable electorate can be accessed using the WEIGHT2
variable.
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 #2, September 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) The variables AREA_CODE and EXCH_CODE were
 recoded for confidentiality. (4) Value labels for unknown codes were
 added in variables Q10 and Q13. (5) The original data file contained
 three records per case and was reformatted into a data file with one
 record per case. (6) Some questions were asked only of respondents
 who answered that they were registered to vote. Please refer to the
 data collection instrument for information on which variables were
asked only of registered voters.