Clearly the White House is worried by the poll results. And it should be worried — but not for the reasons it seems to think. It should be concerned that, after watching the president in office for a year and a half, many Americans still don’t know who Obama really is — and that a growing number have concluded that he does not believe what they believe.

Rather than trying to convince Americans that Obama is indeed a practicing Christian, White House officials should be doing some deep thinking about why the president’s job approval rating has flipped — with most polls showing that more Americans now disapprove of his performance in office than approve of how he’s doing. Strong majorities now disapprove of his handling of many of the issues driving key congressional races in 2010 — such as the economy, health care, the deficit and immigration. A recent Democracy Corps survey found that about six in 10 likely voters believe President Obama is “too liberal” and that he is a “big spender” — and 55 percent say that “socialist” is a fair description of him.

Obama should be a lot more worried that more than half the country thinks he’s a socialist than that a small fraction of the country believes he’s a Muslim.