Obama's VP pick is Biden -- the man who failed to endorse Obama when he had the chance

Sen. Barack Obama's VP pick is quite a classy guy with a visible feeling for the common man that the Democratic presidential nominee cannot seem to summon.

But the elephant in the living room that cannot be ignored is this:

Sen. Joe Biden's speech this afternoon in Springfield, Ill., was a gushing tribute to Obama -- yet Biden didn't think enough of Obama to endorse him while his fight with Sen. Hillary Clinton was still ongoing.

Biden cited his debates with Obama during the primaries. And it was then and there, he told people today, that he was convinced that the presidential nominee was so special, so great, so ... well, Obama.

Yet it was also in those debates that Biden said that Obama was not yet experienced enough to be president. And the McCain campaign has already been running that clip in new TV ads.

As far as keeping in touch with the common man, Biden said Saturday that gas prices keep going up, up, up. But the price for a gallon of gas in Hermitage, TN.(a Nashville suburb) has fallen to $3.16 per gallon. That's giant relief since gas locally peaked at $4 per gallon.

Ultimately, Biden was a safe VP pick, not a historic one -- which is what the Democratic presidential ampaign says it is supposed to be all about. It was a choice that again left out the people who do most of the voting in this nation -- women. And it was a choice based on Obama's glaring weakness on foreign policy.

Afterall, the Illinois Democrat is the one running for president. VPs traditionally have been figures to help carry a state or states in the general election, then they simply take up space once the presidential term begins.

Obama will assure everyone that Biden will be so much more if he is in the White House. But history tells us otherwise. While Obama supporters will point to VP Dick Cheney as representative of a powerful second banana or even someone who actually is the president making the decisions, anyone who has met and talked at length with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice knows that she is the one who carries the greatest sway. She is the one who pushed this nation into Iraq.

Rice is the fire in President Bush's belly. And she believes in change over generations, such as with the Cold War. The numbers of lives lost is not as important to her as making historical change. She also is the one who educated Bush on foreign policy before he ran in 2000. She holds a mentor relationship with him.

Obama said Saturday that Biden is his mentor. He also mistakenly introduced Biden as the next president of the United States. Ouch! Cheney had to be smiling over that one.

Sorry, Sen. Obama, but I don't want a presidential candidate who still needs to brought up to speed on issues by a mentor. Obama's pick of Biden is representative of just that, and he'll have a hard time convincing undecided voters otherwise. And Biden will have a hard time answering for his comments during the presidential primary that Obama was not ready to be president.