DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02902
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, December 1999
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded December 12-15, 1999, is part of a
 continuing series of monthly polls that solicit public opinion on the
 presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
 Respondents were asked for their opinions of President Bill Clinton
 and his handling of the presidency, as well as their views on the
 upcoming November 7, 2000, presidential election and the current
 presidential primary/caucus season. Respondents were asked how much
 attention they had paid to the 2000 presidential race and whether they
 intended to vote in the election. Given a choice among Vice President
 Al Gore, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, Texas governor George
 W. Bush, and Arizona senator John McCain, those queried were asked for
 whom they would vote. Their views were also sought on the most
 important issues of this presidential election and which candidate was
 best suited to handle issues such as education, the economy, taxes,
 Social Security/Medicare, campaign finance reform, international
 affairs, and health care. Respondents were asked if the following
 statements applied to Bradley, Bush, Gore, or McCain: typical
 politician, understands the average American, strong leader,
 experienced enough to be president, would bring needed change to
 Washington, DC, knowledgeable of world affairs, could be trusted in a
 crisis, has a clear idea of where to lead the nation, and says what he
 thinks regardless of what is popular. Respondents were asked for whom
 they would vote in a Democratic primary or caucus, given a choice
 between Gore and Bradley, and for whom they would vote in a Republican
 primary or caucus, given a choice among Bush, publisher Steve Forbes,
 McCain, radio talk show host Alan Keyes, Family Research Council
 president Gary Bauer, and Utah senator Orrin Hatch. Additional topics
 focused on whether the amount of money that people could contribute to
 political parties should be limited, whether the people of New
 Hampshire had too much influence in determining who wins the
 Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, whether Bradley's
 irregular heartbeat for which he took medication was considered
 serious by the American people, and which candidate would best handle
 campaign finance reform, taxes, and balancing the federal
 budget. Background information on respondents includes age, gender,
 education, political party, political orientation, Hispanic descent,
 voter registration and participation history, military service, and
family income.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, December 1999
description: (1) The data are provided as an SPSS portable file.
 (2) 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. (3) The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
 Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
 such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.