Obama’s Foreign Policy Approval Rating Falls to All-Time Low

President Barack Obama waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Royal Air Force Station Fairford, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014, to attend the NATO Summit in Wales. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama’s approval ratings for handling of foreign affairs has fallen to an all-time low in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which also showed a significant jump in support for airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists in Iraq.

Just 38 percent of respondents said they approved of the way the president was dealing with international affairs, while 56 percent said they disapproved.

The record-low approval rate is down from a post-re-election spike of 54 percent in Dec. 2012, and from an all-time high of 67 percent in Apr. 2009, three months into Obama’s presidency. The record-high disapproval rate is up from 39 points in Dec. 2012 and a low of 27 points in Apr. 2009.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said Obama has been too cautious in dealing with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Seventy-one percent expressed support for airstrikes against the jihadists in Iraq – a jump from 45 percent when the question was asked on June 22, almost two weeks after ISIS seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and as it advanced across northern Iraq. Obama authorized airstrikes in Iraq on August 7, and a total of 148 have been carried out since then.

Further, 65 percent of respondents in the poll said the airstrikes should be expanded to target the militants inside Syria, a step Obama has avoided taking up until now.

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A year ago, when Obama was mulling launching airstrikes against the Assad regime in Syria after blaming it for a deadly chemical weapons attack, poll support for such action was less than half the current level. In the end he did not carry out the threat.

Tuesday’s poll comes a day before Obama is due to address the nation on his strategy for tackling ISIS.

The president drew strong criticism for saying on August 28 that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for confronting the ISIS threat in Syria, but he and top administration officials have since then been working on building an international coalition.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by Langer Research Associates, by phone over the period Sept. 4-7, and has a sampling error of 3.5 points.