DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26143.v1
title: CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, February 2008
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded February 20-24, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Opinions were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency, the economy, and the situation with Iraq. Opinions were also sought on the most important problem facing the nation, the condition of the national economy, and the war in Iraq. Respondents were asked how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, for whom they would vote for if the election were held that day, whether they were more likely to vote in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus in their state, who they wanted to see as the Democratic/Republican nominee, their level of support for this candidate, and who they expected to actually win the election. Respondents gave their opinion of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, and John McCain. Other questions about the election and the candidates addressed the preferred qualities in the next president, the respondent's confidence in the candidates' abilities to handle various issues, how superdelegates should vote at their party's convention, how important the candidates' religious beliefs were, and whether the candidates were paying too much attention to people with strong religious beliefs. Respondents were also asked their opinion of Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama. Additional questions asked about the respondents' job security, financial situation, and whether they were comfortable with having debt. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, whether respondents had children less than 18 years of age, political party affiliation, political philosophy, household income, voter registration status and participation history, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. According the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.
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, February 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.Truncated value label in the variable EDUC were corrected, and code 38 in variable Q2 was edited to refer to the president in office at the time of the survey.