CBS News Monthly Poll, October 1999

This poll, fielded October 3-4, 1999, 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 provide assessments of the way in which President Bill Clinton and the United States Congress were handling their jobs, and to give their opinions of other public or political figures, including Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI. A series of questions focused on the events surrounding the Waco, Texas, standoff and confrontation of 1993, including who should take responsibility and blame for the event, whether the cult members deaths could have been avoided, the actions of Congress and the Attorney General's office, and whether the public had been told, or would ever know, the whole truth. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race (including Hispanic descent), education, marital status, voter registration, political party preference, and general political orientation. Respondents were also asked about computer and Internet access, additional telephone numbers at their home (i.e., cell phone, modem, fax, beeper), stock market investments, age of children in the household, and family income.