The foreign policy approval rating of US President Barack Obama dropped five points following last week's deadly protests throughout the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll.
The poll found that among registered voters, the president's foreign policy approval rating dropped to 49 percent from 54 percent one month earlier. Among Independents, who are likely to play a crucial role in determining the result of the upcoming US election, Obama's foreign policy approval rating dropped dramatically from 53 percent in August to 41 percent.
Across 18 NBC/WSJ polls tracking the issue since 2009, the five-point drop is the second biggest recorded over a one-month period, the largest (7%) coming in June 2011 following a record-high approval bump the previous month attributed to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The 49 percent approval rating is the second lowest in the 18 polls.
The new poll also pinned Obama’s foreign policy disapproval rate at 46 percent, up from 40 percent last month. It is his highest foreign policy disapproval rate since taking office.