"We now have a situation where America is so unpopular overseas that, even in countries like Egypt and Jordan, our approval ratings are less than five percent," said Carter, who was in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
Two points:
Leadership is not looking at polling information to determine what is the right path to take or policy to pursue.
In countries like Egypt and Jordan a plurality if not a majority of the population think that the US and Israel conspired to crash aircraft in the WTC on 9/11. With ignorance like that - why would one care about approval ratings?