CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, December 1990

This data collection is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that evaluate the Bush presidency and solicit opinions on a variety of political and social issues. Demographic information collected includes sex, age, race, education, family income, religion, ethnicity, political orientation, party preference, and voting behavior. Issues addressed in this survey include the biggest threat to the respondent's way of life in 1991, Bush's handling of the economy and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, whether the United States did the right thing by sending troops to Saudi Arabia and whether Bush explained the situation in the Middle East well enough so that people understood why troops were sent, whether the United States would end up fighting Iraq or resolving the situation peacefully, whether the Bush Administration had tried hard enough to reach a diplomatic solution or had been too quick to involve American military forces, and whether the United States should negotiate a compromise with Saddam Hussein or hold to its original demand that Iraq leave Kuwait entirely. Respondents were also asked whether they thought Iraq would actually release all the hostages by the end of the month and if their release should influence the United States' willingness to negotiate a compromise with Hussein, whether the United States should begin military actions against Iraq if they did not withdraw their troops from Kuwait by January 15 or wait longer to see if economic sanctions worked, and how long the United States should wait to see if the trade embargo worked. Respondents were also queried as to their agreement/disagreement with the following statements: the troubles among Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are just a conflict between different groups of Arabs that the United States should stay out of, the crisis in the Persian Gulf will continue as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power, public debate over whether the United States should fight Iraq will hurt the effort to persuade Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, and the military draft should be reinstated to provide soldiers for the current Mideast situation. Those surveyed were also asked to choose a statement that comes closest to expressing their beliefs about God, to indicate whether they believed that prayer could change lives, and whether they went to a private doctor, hospital emergency room, or clinic when sick. In addition, the survey posed a series of questions related to responsibilities of adult children toward aging parents, various parenting situations, romantic love, birth control, beer commercials, sponsorship of sporting events by cigarette companies, marital infidelity, marital status, apologizing in marriage, and topics eliciting arguments in marriage.