DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03705
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #2, September 2002
title: Archival Version

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, the economy, and the campaign against
terrorism. Respondents were also asked for their views on whether the
economy and jobs or terrorism and national security should be a higher
priority, how the national economy was doing, and whether Congress was
handling its job well. Opinions were elicited on how the United
Nations was handling its job, whether the United States had too much,
too little, or just the right amount of influence on the U.N., whether
the United States should take the leading role in solving
international conflicts or crises, whether it was okay to criticize
the president's decisions on military issues and proposals on economic
or other domestic issues, whether the United States should attack
another country before it was attacked, if the United States had the
right to attack if it was believed that another country might attack
first, and if the United States should attack Iraq before waiting to
be attacked or if an attack might occur. Respondents were asked how
much they had heard about the possibility of military action against
Iraq, whether the Bush administration clearly explained the United
States position regarding this possibility, whether the respondent
approved of military action against Iraq, whether military action
should take place soon or if the United States should wait for the
U.N., whether the United States should wait for support of its allies,
and whether the United States should follow U.N. recommendations.
Respondents were asked if they believed that the U.N. would be able to
prevent Saddam Hussein from building or keeping weapons of mass
destruction, and if the situation in Iraq would be resolved without
fighting. In regard to Congress, respondents were asked whether
President Bush should receive Congressional approval before taking
military action, when Congress should vote on authorizing military
action, and whether Congress had asked too many questions about
President Bush's policy toward Iraq. Respondents were asked if the
removal of Saddam Hussein from power was worth the potential loss of
American lives, whether military action should take place if it meant
substantial military casualties, whether respondents would favor
military action if the war would last for several months or years, and
whether military action in Iraq would increase or decrease the threat
of terrorism. Other questions focused on whether respondents believed
Iraq currently possessed weapons of mass destruction, whether they
believed Iraq would use these weapons against the United States,
whether they believed Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda members were
responsible for the September 11 attacks, how successful military
action in Iraq would be, what the likelihood of another terrorist
attack in the next few months was, how confident they were in the
ability of the United States to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, and
whether the United States could claim victory over terrorism if bin
Laden were not captured or killed. Respondents were asked for their
opinions on how well the war in Afghanistan was going, whether the
United States should concentrate on bin Laden and al Qaeda or on Iraq,
whether bin Laden or Saddam Hussein was a greater threat, and what
they thought about fighting wars both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Finally, respondents were asked about their political party
preference, whether they had investments, whether they had voted and
for whom in the presidential election of 2000, and what their
political views were. Background information on respondents includes
marital status, religious preference, education, age, Hispanic
descent,ethnicity, income, and whether or not other phone lines were
in the home.
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 Monthly Poll #2, September 2002
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
description: 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.