DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03378.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, October 2001
title: Version 3

description: This poll, conducted October 25-28, 2001, 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, the war on terrorism, the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, and the anthrax outbreaks, as well as their views on Congress
and its handling of the anthrax outbreaks. Respondents were asked for
their opinions on the direction the nation was headed, the state of
the economy, the size of the federal government, whether the
government wasted money, and whether they felt they could trust the
federal government. A series of questions addressed the ongoing war
on terrorism. Topics covered the goal of the war, whether the Bush
administration had adequately explained the United States mission, and
what the main goal should be, as well as whether respondents approved
of the military attacks on Afghanistan. Those queried were asked
whether they were confident that the United States government could
capture/kill Osama bin Laden while maintaining the international
alliance currently supporting their military efforts, how long they
expected the attacks to last, whether this war was worth losing
several thousand American troops, whether the United States should
provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan,
whether the military action would become more widespread, and whether
those who opposed the operation should be permitted to hold protest
marches and rallies. Respondent views were also sought on the
political situation in the Middle East. Opinions were elicited on
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the reasons
for the United States' problems in the region, whether respondents
supported the establishment of a Palestinian homeland, whether their
sympathies lay with Israel or the Arab nations, whether the United
States had explained the war on terrorism to the Arab world, and
whether Saudi Arabia was considered an ally of the United States.
Regarding the anthrax attacks, respondents were asked how closely they
had followed the news about the anthrax outbreaks, whether the
government would be able to catch the people responsible, whether the
government was sharing the right amount of information with the public,
whether public health officials were right to discourage doctors from
prescribing the drug Cipro unnecessarily, whether respondents were
concerned about a biological/chemical attack where they lived, and
whether they were confident in the government's ability to protect its
citizens from such attacks. Respondents also described their reactions
to the recent terrorist attacks, including whether they had
experienced nervousness and/or sleeplessness, lost a substantial
portion of their income and/or their job, canceled any scheduled
trips, and whether they were now spending more time with family and
friends. Additional questions addressed the topic of airline
safety. Survey items focused on whether the federal government and the
airline industry had done enough to improve airline safety and exactly
who should be responsible for airport security personnel. In addition,
respondents indicated whether they were rooting for the New York
Yankees or the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the World
Series. Background information on respondents includes age, gender,
marital status, political party, religion, employment status, children
in household, education, race, Hispanic descent, and household
income.
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/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, October 2001
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having telephones 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' anonymity.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.