DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26947.v1
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, April 2009
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded April 22-26, 2009, is a 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. This poll included an oversample of Blacks, for a total of 212 interviews with Blacks. Respondents were asked for their opinions of President Barack Obama and his handling the presidency and issues such as the economy and foreign policy. Opinions were solicited about the most important problem facing the country, whether the country was moving in the right direction, and the condition of the national economy. Respondents gave their opinions of the United States Congress, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former President George W. Bush. Several questions addressed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the care received by veterans of these wars, whether the United States should negotiate with members of the Taliban, whether waterboarding was a form of torture, whether it was justified to use aggressive interrogation tactics to get information from suspected terrorists, and whether the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be closed. Views were also sought on whether children were better off if their mother didn't work outside the home, as well as on the difficulty of motherhood today compared to when they were children. Female respondents with children were asked how similar their parenting style was to their mother's and whether they thought their family appreciated them enough. Additional topics addressed race relations in the United States, same-sex marriage, the effects of the recession, international relations with Iran and Cuba, gun control, immigration policy, and the health care system. Information was collected on how many of the respondent's neighbors and co-workers were Black, whether the respondent or a member of their immediate family had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and whether anyone in the household owned a gun. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, household income, employment status, perceived social class, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, religious preference, whether they were parents, and whether they considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
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. The poll includes an oversample of Blacks and the results were weighted in proportion to the racial composition of the adult population in the United States Census.
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. 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). African American respondents were oversampled.
description: Datasets: DS1: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, April 2009
description: Persons aged 18 and over 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.Truncated value labels in variables EDUC and Q5 were corrected.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.