Obama in over his head.

This time last year, long before anyone cast a vote in the Democratic primaries, everyone assumed that Senator Hillary Clinton would be the Democrat Presidential nominee for 2008. Absolutely no one questioned that.
I believe, that when he first announced his candidacy, Barack Obama himself probably believed that as well.
In an early Washington Post story, it was noted,
"Despite all the hype about his potential candidacy, some of Obama's closest associates worry that the senator remains untested. After winning a tough Senate primary in 2004, he sailed through the general election, aided by a Republican nominee with extensive personal travails. 'There will be bumps; there always are,' said one senior Obama adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ' He's going to have to manage expectations and show he has the strength and endurance for the long haul.' "
I suspect, that when he first entered the Presidential race, Obama had another agenda. Not really expecting to win, he was merely putting his hat into the ring in order to, in essence, pad his future resume.
He, like many candidates who don't win Presidential elections, would be forever introduced as "former Presidential candidate, Barack Obama". That alone would have given him a certain amount of Democratic Party "street cred".
There was always the remote possibility that Hillary Clinton would have picked him as her running mate, but I believe that was, in his mind, a dream. I don't think that he had actually considered for a moment that he would ever be the nominee for 2008.
Now that he is the nominee I think he realizes that he is in way over his head. His picking Joe Biden as his running mate shows he is in desperate need of advice from an old hand.
It's not a coincidence that, from the beginning, Biden was seen as Obama's "Dick Cheney"....someone who would give Obama "gravitas"
The thing that no one expected in 2007 was the reaction of the Democrat male voter to the thought of Hillary Clinton as President. These Democrats looked at her and were horrified.
Now, we may be burdened with the worse President since Andrew Johnson.....all because of the not-so- feminist male Democrats.