DOI: 10.3886/icpsr32543.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, July 2010
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded July 7 - 11, 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. This poll surveyed an oversample of approximately 241 Gulf Coast residents. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling his job as president, the economy, the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, health care, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the president's duties as commander-in-chief. Respondents were also asked their opinions about the national economy, how much confidence they had in the Republicans and Democrats in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future, and who they trusted to do a better job, the Democrats or the Republicans, in handling the economy. Multiple questions addressed the oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Respondents were asked about their personal feelings about the oil spill, their rating of the federal government, their local and state government, and the oil company, BP's, overall response to the oil spill, whether the federal government should pursue criminal charges against BP, whether the oil spill was a major environmental disaster, whether the spill affected the economy in their area and their personal finances, and whether respondents were concerned with the long term impacts of the oil spill on the economy, tourism, the environment, and on the safety of seafood that was consumed in the area.
Additional questions asked respondents about their congressional voting preferences, their opinions regarding the federal government, an unemployment benefits extension, the war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan.
Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, household income, military service, religious preference, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status, and whether respondents thought of themselves as born again Christians.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weights were derived using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Until 2008, ABC News used a cell-based weighting system in which respondents were classified into one of 48 or 32 cells (depending on sample size) based on their age, race, sex, and education; weights were assigned so the proportion in each cell matched the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey. To achieve greater consistency and reduce the chance of large weights, ABC News in 2007 tested and evaluated iterative weighting, commonly known as raking or rim weighting, in which the sample is weighted sequentially to Census targets one variable at a time, continuing until the optimum distribution across variables (again, age, race, sex, and education) is achieved. ABC News adopted rim weighting in January 2008. Weights are capped at lows of 0.2 and highs of 6.
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. Field work for most of ABC's United States polling is carried out by TNS of Horsham, PA, using a dual-frame sample design covering both landline telephone and cell phone-only respondents, with samples produced by Survey Sampling Inc. of Shelton, CT. There was an oversample of 214 Gulf Coast residents included in the sample.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, July 2010
description: Persons aged 18 years and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County), ZIP (ZIP code), and QD1A (ZIP Code)have been replaced with blank codes.System-missing values were recoded to -1.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables MSA, CSA, CBSA, and METRODIV.