WASHINGTON — Determined to defy the stereotype of a weakened short-timer, President Obama is ending 2015 with a series of accomplishments, most notably a nuclear agreement with Iran, an international climate accord, a 12-nation Pacific trade pact, and long-stalled deals on the budget, education, and transportation.
But as he begins his final year in office, those achievements have been overshadowed by Americans' anxiety over terror attacks and the expanding battle with the Islamic State, along with a public perception that Obama is unable or unwilling to channel the nation's fears.
Obama has the lowest rating of his presidency for terrorism, with 37 percent approving of the way he has handled the issue, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center. Fifty-seven percent disapprove, even as terrorism has catapulted to the top of the public's list of concerns.
In a news conference at the White House on Friday before leaving for a two-week vacation, Obama tried for a fourth time in 14 days to reassure a nervous nation. He urged people to stay vigilant and to refuse to be terrorized by remaining united "as one American family."
"Squeezing ISIL's heart at its core in Syria and Iraq will make it harder for them to pump their terror and propaganda to the rest of the world," Obama said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. He added that "our counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement communities are working 24/7 to protect our homeland."
In private meetings a year ago, Obama vowed to wring every ounce of progress out of his remaining tenure and admonished his staff not to be discouraged by Republican congressional victories. His success in the past 12 months, both overseas and at home, defied expectations that gridlock in Washington and the presidential campaign would derail his plans.
But few seem to have noticed. The president's overall job rating has hardly budged in the last year, the Pew survey found. The president's job approval is at 46 percent even as Obama has claimed progress on economic and domestic issues, which the public now rates as less important.
"They didn't resonate out there in any way," William M. Daley, a former chief of staff for Obama, said of the president's accomplishments this year.
Daley said most Americans viewed negotiating a budget deal or a transportation funding bill as a basic responsibility of government. "Yeah, we don't have a shutdown," he said, "but that's like asking for credit for just doing a job."
The president and his aides have long been frustrated by a political and media environment that they view as too focused on trivial, short-term matters. But White House officials said the president remained focused on chipping away at his priority list.
Daley said Obama had "a hard time emoting" about the terror threat because he tried to avoid the kind of bellicose rhetoric coming from the Republican presidential candidates.
But Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said there was a downside to that. He said that while Obama was traveling in Asia immediately after the Paris attacks, the president and his staff missed a chance to connect with Americans on their fears about terrorism, and instead criticized lawmakers and others for focusing blame on Syrian refugees.
He added that the president was right to rebuke those who want to keep Syrian refugees out the country, but "there was a moment where they should have said, 'OK, people are afraid, we understand that.' "
Carroll J. Doherty, the director of political research at Pew, said Obama's accomplishments had failed to translate into better approval ratings largely because they were either too obscure to grab public notice or so controversial — the Iran deal, for example — that they sparked a polarized reaction.
At the same time, he said, Obama has been unable to shake the perception that his response to national security threats has been weak. The share of Americans who believe the government is doing a good job reducing the threat of terrorism has fallen sharply this year, from 72 percent to 46 percent, the lowest point since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
At the White House, advisers say they are pleased that Obama has at least avoided lame duck status.
"He focuses on enacting policy, and he doesn't worry about polls and the news cycle," said Phil Schiliro, who served as the president's chief legislative aide early in his first term. The president's view, he added, is "that politics will sort itself out."
Obama has also managed to forge some unlikely alliances with Republicans on the domestic front.
Kaine said that in the last year, Obama and his aides had become better at working with adversaries to get things done on Capitol Hill.
Kaine compared it to whitewater rafting. "You can fight the current all you want, but you aren't going to make any headway," he said. "The best white-water kayakers go with the current. I think the White House has finally figured that out."