Over the last year, young Democrats have been led to believe in the infallibility of Barack Obama. We have listened to the inspiring speeches, watched the almost ludicrously thorough coverage of his campaign, made excuses for him after debates and defended him against the Clintonistas. He could do no wrong! He’s young, he’s black, his wife kicks ass, he’s got two little kids, he just payed off his college loans! The man’s story was enough for me, and for many of my fellow Baby Dems, enough to secure him the nomination as well as the chance to choose his running mate.

It was then around mid-May, early-June, as he wrapped up the final primaries, that doubt in the man’s messianic perfection began setting in. It was the way he dealt with Hillary, not standing up to her when his victory was obvious. It was his continuing support for ethanol, as food prices ceaselessly skyrocketed. It was the unending centrist changes his campaign has been willing to make, despite his ubiquitous trumpeting for change.

Perhaps, I thought to myself (fearing the answer), Obama is, after all, just a politician?

It was with this steadily widening inkling of doubt that I received the news of Obama’s choice of Joe Biden, senior senator from Delaware, to be his vice presidential nominee. Now, to many this seems the clear, if obvious, call for the Obama camp. Biden fills the biggest gap in Obama’s resume: his lack of “experience.”

Having served as a senator for 36 years, the 65-year-old brings the Beltway insider experience and gray hair that conventional wisdom dictates an Obama ticket needs. But to many, this campaign hasn’t been about conventional wisdom, but idealism. This campaign hasn’t been about the amount of time a candidate has spent in Washington, but the wisdom he has gained there. And as Mr. Biden proves, one does not necessarily lead to the other.

Joe Biden is more responsible for the Iraq War than any other politician, outside of George Bush’s inside circle. As early as 1998, Biden was hawkish in his language during Senate discussions on Iraq: “The only way we’re going to get rid of Saddam Hussein is we’re going to start it alone, it’s going to require [soldiers] to be back on foot in the desert taking Saddam down.”

Eight years later, as Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002, his supportive attitude toward invasion allowed propagandist rhetoric to dominate the stage during pre-war hearings, while simultaneously silencing much of the anti-war evidence.

These hearings were the single most important part of the push for war, and as Scott Ritter, chief United Nations weapons inspector said at the time, “For Sen. Biden’s Iraq hearings to be anything more than a political sham … his committee will need to ask hard questions — and demand hard facts — concerning the real nature of the weapons threat posed by Iraq.” Ritter wasn’t allowed to testify. Thanks in large part to Biden’s support, one of the single gravest travesties in American history was allowed to occur.

Many have forgotten just how essential the influential Democrat’s support for a mainly Republican-backed war was, making it easier for Biden to throw around the now painful cliche: “Bush hoodwinked us … we all thought there were weapons … I don’t support the way the war has been run …” etc, etc. But for those of us who have not forgotten the way you conducted your hearings, Mr. Biden, it will be very difficult to forgive.

How can Obama let one of those most responsible for the Iraq war be his running mate, stand on stage with him, share space on bumper stickers with him?

While Biden was speedily pushing through the mockeries of hearings he organized, Obama was in Chicago, speaking at anti-war rallies. Obama’s outright opposition to the Iraq war has been the absolute centerpiece of his campaign, the only real difference between himself and Hillary Clinton, the iron-clad testament to his morality. Obama’s choice of Biden is bald-faced pragmatism, do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-elected kind of politics, where the ethical high ground is worth less than a few electoral votes from the Midwest.

As I sit and write, crushed and yet not surprised by what, for myself, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, I wonder if America can expect to see more of the same from Barack Obama, the once-bastion of hope for what politics could be.

Yes We Can.