Roughly 70 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. | Getty Obama's approval rating falls to lowest level in a year

President Barack Obama's approval rating has dipped to its lowest level in more than a year, as he struggles to reassure the public that he's got the right approach to combating terrorism and the threat of Islamic State, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Obama's job rating is now at 43 percent, down two points from late October, and the lowest level since before the 2014 midterm elections. The poll also found that roughly 70 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest number since August 2014. Only 20 percent believe the country is on the right track.


The numbers are a reversal for Obama, who had been enjoying a spree of wins this year, including Supreme Court decisions upholding Obamacare and gay marriage, landmark deals on trade and on Iran's nuclear capabilities, and an economic recovery that started looking more real.

Those victories have been overshadowed in recent weeks by fears about terrorism after the Paris attacks on Nov. 13 and the San Bernardino, California, massacre on Nov. 2 that was the most deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. The attacks came after Obama had called ISIL "contained," and he has since struggled to sell his stay-the-course strategy against the terrorist network.

In the NBC/WSJ poll, only 37 percent of Americans approve of Obama's handling of foreign policy, while only 34 percent approve of his handling of ISIL. The poll also found that 73 percent say they want the next president to take a different approach than Obama has taken.

The poll was conducted Dec. 6-9 and included 1,000 adults, with nearly 400 reached by cell phone. The overall margin of error is plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points.

