DOI: 10.3886/icpsr27327
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #3, September 2008
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded September 27-29, 2008, 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. A national sample of 1,271 adults was surveyed, including an oversample of African Americans. Information was collected on how closely respondents were following the 2008 presidential race and the chances that they would vote in the upcoming presidential election in November. Respondents were also queried on which candidate they would vote for in the presidential election and who they would like to see win the Democratic nomination. Information was collected on impressions of the vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Respondents were asked what was the single most important issue in their choice for president. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling the presidency and the economy. Several questions asked respondents to compare Barack Obama and John McCain, and which candidate they trusted to handle issues such as the war in Iraq, energy policy, international affairs, the economy, and taxes. Information was collected on respondents opinions of the presidential debate, specifically who they thought had won and whether it had changed their opinion of either candidate. Respondents were queried on the country's current financial situation and whether they thought it was a serious problem. Respondents were also asked whether they supported the government's bailout of financial institutions and whether they thought the government's efforts would prevent the country's current financial situation from getting worse. Additional questions asked respondents who they thought was to blame for the current financial situation, whether they thought the government's bailout plan did enough to help major financial institutions, the United States economy, and ordinary Americans. Demographic variables include sex, age, marital status, race, income, political ideology, political party affiliation, political philosophy, education level, religious preference, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weights were derived using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Until 2008 ABC News used a cell-based weighting system in which respondents were classified into one of 48 or 32 cells (depending on sample size) based on their age, race, sex, and education; weights were assigned so the proportion in each cell matched the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey. To achieve greater consistency and reduce the chance of large weights, ABC News in 2007 tested and evaluated iterative weighting, commonly known as raking or rim weighting, in which the sample is weighted sequentially to Census targets one variable at a time, continuing until the optimum distribution across variables (again, age, race, sex, and education) is achieved. ABC News adopted rim weighting in January 2008. Weights are capped at lows of 0.2 and highs of 6. The oversample of African American respondents was weighted back to their correct share of the national population.
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. This poll included an African American oversample. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #3, September 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, STCODE, CONGDIST, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (ZIP Code) have been replaced with blank codes.System-missing values were recoded to -1.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables MSA, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, and NIELSMKT.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA. 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.