Mainstream media networks have been desperately trying to paint a picture of an America in line with Obama’s vision of the future. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. It’s easy to make it look like Americans are all for government run health care when they’re not — just oversample far-left Democrats in your polls! And that is exactly what ABC and MSNBC and several other media outlets have been doing. But they can only keep up the facade for so long. Even CNN is being forced to admit that Obama’s poll numbers are plummeting.

As President Obama navigates his way through a series of issues as controversial as they are vital, he’s getting a yellow flag from the American people.

For the first time since Obama took office, fewer than half of Americans agree with the president on issues important to them, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday. A majority, 51 percent, disagree — a jump of 10 percentage points since April.

Despite the majority disagreement on issues, the poll also found the president’s approval rating remains in the healthy mid-50s. And two-thirds of Americans say he has the personal qualities a president should have.

“It’s awfully early yet, but this president might be shaping up to be a little like Ronald Reagan, where people actually didn’t often agree with Ronald Reagan’s ideas, but they loved the guy,” said Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN contributor.

A popular president who is less popular on the issues — Obama could use his personal popularity to rally support for his less popular agenda.

“They still like the messenger. That’s important for Obama because he’ll be able to look presidential, and Americans may respond to that as he’s trying to make a pitch for his health care plan, financial reform, whatever he decides to do in Afghanistan and Iran,” said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director.

Americans may like Obama as a person. He seems like he’s a likeable enough guy; I can give him that. But it doesn’t change the fact that most Americans strongly disagree with him on the issues. They don’t like the direction he’s taking this country in. And nothing will change that, no matter how much they like him as an individual.

And the comparison to Ronald Reagan is just ludicrous. People continue to love Ronald Reagan because they did love his policies. Bill Clinton seemed like a likeable guy on TV, too, but he isn’t a beloved president today, is he? Ronald Reagan continues to be beloved by the people because he was a good person who practiced good politics. Whether Obama is misguided or evil doesn’t make a difference, because the end result is still the same. Americans understand that. It doesn’t matter how nice he is, if he’s a good husband and father, or if he’s smart or funny or hip. If he destroys the country, what does any of that matter?

Americans care more about their country than they do about their personal feelings towards the president. And that’s why his poll numbers keep dropping, despite the fact that he still remains well-liked. Until he can get his politics right, he won’t be seeing any rise in his polling.