CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, April 2008 (ICPSR 26148)

Version Date: Oct 20, 2009

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Principal Investigator(s):
CBS News; The New York Times

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26148.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This poll, fielded April 25-29, 2008, is a 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. Opinions were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency, the economy, and the situation with Iraq. Views were sought on the Republican party, the Democratic party, how well Congress was handling it's job, the condition of the national economy, and whether the economy was getting better or worse. Respondents were asked how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, 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, for whom they would vote if the election were held that day, and who they expected to actually win the election. Respondents gave their opinions of Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Respondents also gave their opinions of Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, and Cindy McCain. Other questions about the election and the candidates addressed who respondents wanted to see as the Democratic nominee's vice presidential running mate, the importance of the candidates' religious service attendance, whether the method of nominating presidential candidates in caucuses and primaries produced the best candidates, and the treatment of the candidates by the media. Several questions about the Democratic and Republican party were asked and included questions such as which party came closer to sharing the moral values of the respondent, which party was more likely to improve health care, make sure the United States military defenses were strong, and make the right decisions regarding immigration, a strong economy, and the war in Iraq. Additional questions asked about tax rebate checks, foods containing genetically modified ingredients, household income, whether the respondent or any member of the respondent's household owned a handgun, and whether the respondent had a relative or family friend that was currently serving in Iraq. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, 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.

Citation

CBS News, and The New York Times. CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, April 2008. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-10-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26148.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2008-04

Date of Collection

2008-04-25 -- 2008-04-29

Data Collection Notes

  1. The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.

  2. The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.

  3. This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.

  4. Truncated value label in the variable EDUC and Q19 were corrected.

  5. Variable Q100 was recoded to protect respondent confidentiality.

  6. The code for value label 38 in variable Q19 was edited to refer to the president in office at the time of the survey.

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Sample

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). Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones.

Universe

Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the United States.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2009-10-20

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:

  • CBS News, and The New York Times. CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, April 2008. ICPSR26148-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-10-20. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26148.v1

2009-10-20 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:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Weight

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.

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Notes