Yesterday, during an appearance on Morning Joe, David Axelrod dismissed Herman Cain’s candidacy. (h/t Mark Hemingway of The Weekly Standard.)

I, for one, am glad that Axelrod doesn’t take Cain seriously because if Axelrod isn’t taking Cain seriously then it means that President Obama isn’t taking Cain seriously. It means that the Obama White House has tunnel vision which is concentrated almost exclusively on Mitt Romney.

It also means that Obama is out of touch with the public mood which has gravitated to Cain over the past several weeks. Oh, they’re aware of Cain’s poll numbers but they don’t think he has any staying power. Of course, it’s possible they might have calculated that one correctly. But if they haven’t calculated that correctly then watch out. It means they aren’t prepared for Herman Cain. As I have explained previously, going up against Cain won’t be like going up against any of the other GOP candidates. Cain can debate Obama with a candor with which the other candidates simply cannot or will not for fear of being accused of racism. Not that it will stop the liberal accusations of racism. But Cain will make such accusations look really, really stupid.

If President Obama’s re-election campaign continues to make the mistake of taking Cain too lightly before they know it they might end up handing him the keys to the White House.