ABC News/Washington Post Poll, April 2008 [electronic resource] ABC News, The Washington Post

2009-11-12

Ann Arbor, Mich. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor] 2009

1 online resource

Numeric

This poll, fielded April 10-13, 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 random national sample of 1,197 adults were surveyed, including additional interviews with randomly selected African Americans and Catholics, for a total of 213 African American respondents and 292 Catholic respondents. Views were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency, the war in Iraq, and the economy. Respondents were asked what they thought was the single most important issue in their choice for president, and their opinion of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton. Respondents were also queried on whether they thought the war in Iraq was worth fighting, whether significant progress was made toward restoring civil order, whether the United States should keep its military forces there until civil order is restored, and whether they thought the United States must win the war in Iraq for the war on terrorism to be a success. Information was collected on how closely respondents were following the 2008 presidential race, which candidate they would like see win the Democratic nomination for president, whether the tone of the Democratic campaign was positive, whether the length of the Democratic race was good for Democrats, and how the super delegates should choose which candidate to nominate based on different counting methods. Several questions asked respondents to compare Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and which candidate they trusted to handle issues such as international trade, the economy, and health care. Respondents were asked which candidate they would vote for if the 2008 presidential election were being held that day and whether a Democratic or Republican president would do a better job handling the situation in Iraq and the economy. Views were sought on Pope Benedict XVI and whether he should maintain the traditional policies of the Roman Catholic Church, whether the Catholic Church is in touch with American Catholics today, policies on women becoming priests, marriage for Catholic priests, and how the Catholic Church has handled the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests. Additional topics included the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, the state of the national economy, respondents' financial situation, gas prices, whether government assistance such as new tax breaks for businesses would avoid or soften a recession, and respondents' plans for a federal rebate. Demographics variables include sex, age, marital status, race, income, voter registration status, political ideology, political party affiliation, political philosophy, education level, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.Cf: http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24606.v1

Also available as downloadable files.

Data Sets / Online

English

June 14, 2019

ABC News/Washington Post Poll, April 2008

Data sets.