DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04506
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #2, January 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, conducted January 18-20, 1996, 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 Bill Clinton and his handling of the presidency, foreign policy, and the economy. Those polled were asked about crime, the economy, the most important problem facing the country, and whether they trusted President Clinton or the Republicans in the United States Congress to handle this problem. A series of questions addressed the 1996 presidential campaign, including how much attention respondents were paying to the campaign, for whom they would vote, whether they would vote in the presidential primaries in their state, and their opinions of the presidential candidates. Views were also sought on First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the type of treatment she received from the news media, the White House Travel Office firings, and whether a first lady could fulfill her responsibilities while holding a job outside of the White House. Respondents also gave their opinions of the job performances of the United States Congress, including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Majority Leader of the Senate Bob Dole. Other topics addressed the federal budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republicans in Congress, the Whitewater investigation, the flat tax proposal, job layoffs, and which team would win the upcoming Super Bowl. Information was also collected on whether respondents listened to political call-in radio shows, whether they considered themselves part of the religious right, which type of income tax form they would file, and whether anyone in the household worked for the federal government or was currently serving in the armed forces. Demographic variables include sex, race, age, household income, education level, type of residential area (e.g. urban or rural), religious preference, political party affiliation, voter participation history and registration status, and political philosophy.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used for analysis.
description: Stratified random digit dialing. 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 Monthly Poll #2, January 1996
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over having a telephone at home.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The data and documentation for this study were acquired from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. (3) The variable AREACODE was recoded for confidentiality. (4) The original data file contained three records per case and was reformatted into a data file with one record per case. (5) ICPSR created a unique sequential record identifier variable named CASEID.