DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02849.v3
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, September 1999
title: Version 3

description: This poll, fielded September 14-18, 1999, 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 views on how they would
like to see presidential candidates spend their time, the impact of
the government on society, the most important problem facing the
United States, and campaign issues. Specifically, respondents were
asked what a president could do to improve Medicare, Social Security,
education, health care, and the economy and how the federal budget
surplus should be used. Those queried were also asked with whom the
responsibility rested to care for the needy, promote values, insure
jobs and an adequate standard of living, provide job training, and
improve education and welfare. Respondents were asked if, in the last
four years, they had contacted a member of Congress or a newspaper
editor, done public service, worked on a political campaign, signed a
petition, called a talk show, attended a political function, or given
a political contribution. Views were also sought on the upcoming 2000
presidential election, including the Democratic and Republican
primaries/caucuses. Respondents were asked for whom they intend to
vote: Vice President Al Gore, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley,
Texas governor George W. Bush, Arizona senator John McCain, publisher
Steve Forbes, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, Family Research
Council President Gary Bauer, talk show host Alan Keyes, Utah senator
Orrin Hatch, or former American Red Cross president Elizabeth
Dole. Additional topics covered the effectiveness of the political
system in the United States, the respondents' opinions of the
Democratic and Republican parties, and whether the state and/or
federal government accurately represented respondents'
views. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race,
Hispanic descent, political party, political orientation, voter
registration and participation history, education, religion, marital
status, computer access, stock market investments, age of children in
household, and family income.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll, September 1999
description: (1) 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, hardcopy documentation has been converted
to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure
respondents' anonymity. (2) The codebook is provided 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 through the ICPSR Website on the
Internet.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.