DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03744.v2
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, January 2003
title: Version 2

description: This poll 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 George W. Bush and his handling of the presidency, foreign policy, and the economy, as well as their views on the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the United States Congress. Their views were sought on which of the following issues should receive the most congressional attention in the coming year: passing a tax cut, reforming health care, creating jobs, fighting the war on terror, revitalizing the economy, or dealing with the situation in Iraq. Respondents were asked to assess their confidence in Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the economy. Their views were sought on the 2001 tax cuts, their understanding of and the seriousness of the federal budget deficit, whether stockholders should pay taxes on stock dividends, whether preserving Social Security and Medicare was preferable to receiving a tax cut, and whether cutting taxes or reducing the federal budget deficit would be better for the economy. A series of questions focused on the policies of the Bush administration, including whether these policies treated social classes fairly, whether Bush or other people were actually running the administration, whether Bush cared about people like the respondent, whether the administration was influenced by big business and/or the religious right, and whether the administration had made progress in the following areas: improving the national economy, creating new jobs, reducing the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly, preserving Social Security/Medicare for future generations, and improving public schools. Those polled were asked for their views on affirmative action policies in hiring, promoting, and college admissions, including whether these programs should be continued and the importance of a racially diverse student body. Respondents were asked to consider the global opinion of the United States and the relationship between the United States and its European allies, compared to two years previously. A series of questions addressed the current situation in Iraq, with items focusing on whether the United States had exhausted its diplomatic options, whether respondents expected the United States to use military force, the possible findings of the January 27, 2003, report by United Nations weapons inspectors, possible responses to their findings, whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, whether military force should be used to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, and possible terrorist attacks in response to United States military action. In addition, respondents were asked whether Iraq, North Korea, or terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda posed the greatest threat to world peace and stability. Respondents were also asked about their opinions on the war against and the threat of terrorism. Questions included whether the Bush administration had a clear plan, whether its policies were making the United States less likely to be the target of terrorist attacks, whether the United States had made progress in eliminating the threat from terrorists operating in Afghanistan, the likelihood of future attacks, and who was winning the war against terrorism. Additional questions probed respondent views on abortion, Bush administration Supreme Court nominees, whether today's youth would have a better future than their parents, and the image of the United States in the Arab world. Background information on respondents includes age, gender, voter registration and participation history, political party, political orientation, marital status, religion, education, Hispanic descent, race, children in household, household income, stock market investments, whether respondents receivedtaxable dividends, and whether they intended to watch the January 28, 2003, State of the Union Address.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created variable labels and/or value labels..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: CBS News/New York Times Poll Series
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.
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over having a telephone at home.
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).