DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04525.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, December 2005
title: Version 1

description: This poll, conducted December 15-18, 2005, is part of a
continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
the current 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 and issues such as
the economy, health care, and the situation in Iraq. Views were sought
on the most important problem for President Bush and the United States
Congress to deal with in the upcoming year, and respondents rated
their level of optimism in regard to issues such as the nation's
defense against natural disasters and possible terrorist attacks.
Respondents were asked whether they would be more likely to vote for a
Democratic or Republican candidate if the November 2006 congressional
election were held today, and whether they approved of the way the
members of Congress and their own representative were doing their
jobs. The poll also elicited views on whether the war with Iraq was
worth fighting, whether United States military forces in Iraq should
be increased, decreased, or remain the same, and whether a deadline
should be set for their withdrawal. Other questions asked whether
progress was being made in Iraq and whether its recent elections
brought the United States closer to the withdrawal of its military
forces. Additional topics focused on illegal immigration, abortion,
recent Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito, the use of torture
on and secret detainment of suspected terrorists in the United States
campaign against terrorism, and whether respondents preferred the
greeting "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." Demographic variables
include age, sex, race, education level, voter registration status,
household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy,
religious affiliation, type of residential area, and frequency of
religious service attendance.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
 used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic
 information from the Census to adjust for sampling and non-sampling
 deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were
 classified into one of 48 cells based on age, race, sex and education.
 Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48 cells
 matched the actual population proportion according to the Census
Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
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.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, December 2005
description: Persons aged 18 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.Additional information about sampling, interviewing, and sampling
error may be found in the codebook.Original reports using these
data may be found via the ABC News Polling Unit Web
site and via the 
Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.System
missing values were recoded to -1.FIPS and ZIP variables were
recoded for confidentiality.Value labels for unknown/missing
codes were added in the MSA, METRODIV, CSA, and CBSA variables.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.