DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02173.v2
title: ABC News/Washington Post Inaugural Poll, January 1997
title: Version 2

description: This special topic poll, conducted January 13-15, 1997, is
 part of a continuing series of monthly polls that solicit public
 opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social
 issues. This data collection was undertaken to assess public opinion
 prior to President Bill Clinton's second-term inauguration as
 president of the United States. Respondents were asked to give their
 opinions of President Clinton and his handling of the first term of
 his presidency, whether he would do a better or worse job in his
 second term in office, whether they approved of his choices for
 Cabinet and other top positions in his administration, and what the
 nature of his relationship with Congress should be in his second
 term. Views were sought on whether President Clinton had made progress
 toward reducing unemployment and improving education during his first
 term, and whether he would make substantial progress in these areas
 during his second term. Respondents rated the most important issue
 facing the country, whether they were better or worse off financially
 compared to four years ago, whether they approved of the way Congress
 was handling its job, whether they expected Congress to do a better
 job in the next two years, and whether they trusted the Clinton
 administration or the Republicans in Congress to handle the main
 problems the nation would face over the next few years. Other
 questions asked whether respondents approved of the way Hillary
 Clinton was handling her job as first lady and the amount of influence
 she held over her husband, and whether she should play a greater role
 in her husband's second administration. A series of questions asked
 about recent allegations involving President Clinton, including
 Whitewater, the Democratic National Campaign Committee's acceptance of
 foreign contributions, and former Arkansas state employee Paula
 Jones's sexual harassment charges, and whether they would interfere
 with his ability to serve as president. Additional topics addressed
 what actions the government should take to protect the long-term
 financial stability of Social Security and the Medicare health system
 and the overall level of ethics and honesty in politics and the
 federal government. Demographic variables include sex, age, race,
 education level, household income, political party affiliation,
political philosophy, and voter participation history.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
 used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national
 representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing
of sex, race, age, and education.
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 Inaugural Poll, January 1997
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted
 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) 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. (3) The meaning of the
 variable SELECTB is unknown and may be associated with the sampling
 method of selecting a respondent based on the adult living in the
 household who last had a birthday. (4) According to the data
 collection instrument, code 3 in the variable Q909 also includes
 respondents who answered that they had attended a technical college.
 (5) Value labels for unknown codes were add in the variables
 RECODED_AGE and Q1. (6) The CASEID variable was created for use with
online analysis.