DOI: 10.3886/icpsr31562.v1
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #1, January 2010
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded January 14-17, 2010, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling his job as president, the economy, foreign policy, the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, health care, the threat of terrorism, and the United States response to the earthquake in Haiti. Respondents were queried on whether they thought the economy was getting better or worse, whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the next three years with Obama as president, whether they thought that Obama had strong qualities of leadership, and whether they believe that Obama says what he believes most of the time, or says what he thinks people want to hear. Respondents were also asked whether they thought that Obama's policies have generally helped or hurt the economy, whether they thought Obama has brought real change to the way things are done in Washington, whether they thought the United States' image in the world has gotten better since Obama has been president, whether they thought that Obama would make the United States health care system better if the health care legislation passed, and whether they thought that Obama has done too much or too little for the nation's banks, financial institutions, auto industry, homeowners, the middle class, and small business owners. Information was collected on whether respondents thought that there would be a major earthquake in the United States in the next 20 years, whether the federal government was adequately prepared to deal with a major earthquake, whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, whether they approved of the way Joe Biden was handling his job as vice president, whether they approved of the way Michelle Obama was handling her role as first lady, whether they approved of the way that Hillary Clinton was handling her job as secretary of state, whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Sarah Palin, and whether they would like to see Sarah Palin run for president in 2012. Respondents were asked whether they thought that the views of the people in the Tea Party movement generally reflect the views of most Americans, whether they thought that autism was a serious problem, how likely they thought it would be that in their lifetime there would be a cure for autism, whether they thought the housing market in their area would get better or worse in the next year, whether they currently rented their home, or bought it with a mortgage, or had their home entirely paid for. Finally respondents were asked how they felt about financial companies paying their employee bonuses after receiving bailout money from the government, whether they thought these bonuses were a major economic problem, who they thought benefited most from the bailout, whether they had enough income to save money or whether they had just enough to meet bills and obligations, and what social class they would say they belonged to. Demographic information includes sex, age, race, marital status, education level, household income, religious preference, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), political party affiliation, political philosophy, and voter registration status.
description: The data contain weight variables that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing (RDD) 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. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. 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 #1, January 2010
description: Persons aged 18 years and older living in households with telephones in the United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.A truncated value label in variable EDUC was corrected.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.