DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04015.v3
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #1, March 2004
title: Version 3

description: This poll, conducted March 10-13, 2004, is part of a series
of monthly polls that solicit public opinion on political and social
issues. Views were sought on the 2004 presidential campaign, as well
as President George W. Bush and his handling of the presidency,
foreign policy, the economy, the situation with Iraq, and the campaign
against terrorism. Respondents were asked whether the country was
going in the right or wrong direction, whether the result of the war
with Iraq was worth the human and economic costs, whether Iraq was a
threat to the United States prior to the war, and whether the United
States made the right decision in taking military action against Iraq.
Several questions asked whether the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, had a negative or positive impact on the economy, whether the
economy and the respondent's own financial situation was better or
worse than when President Bush first took office four years ago, and
the effect of the Bush administration's policies on jobs, taxes, the
country's level of safety from terrorism, and the cost of prescription
drugs for the elderly. Opinions were solicited on the seriousness of
the current budget deficit, how serious of a problem it would be in
the future, and whether the tax cuts enacted in 2001 should be made
permanent, even if they increased the budget deficit in the future.
Respondents were also polled on how much attention they paid to the
2004 presidential campaign, the likelihood that they would vote,
whether they planned to vote for President George W. Bush, Democratic
candidate John Kerry, or Independent candidate Ralph Nader, whether
they had made their mind up yet, who they expected to win, the issue
they most wanted candidates to discuss, and whether it was acceptable
to use images of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in
political campaigns. A series of questions addressed respondents'
level of confidence in the ability of President Bush and John Kerry to
correctly handle an international crisis and make decisions about the
national economy, and whether each candidate's election would increase
jobs, improve the economy, protect the country from terrorism, and
ensure the future of Social Security benefits. Those polled also gave
their opinions of the Democratic and Republican parties, and Vice
President Dick Cheney. Additional topics addressed whether
homosexuality was a choice, whether respondents favored or opposed a
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, whether laws
regarding marriage and civil unions should be determined by state or
federal governments, and whether the issue of gay marriage should be a
part of the election campaign. Background variables include sex, age,
education, ethnicity, household income, religion, marital status,
number of other telephone lines in household, political party
affiliation, political orientation, and voter participation and
registration history.
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 #1, March 2004
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone 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.