While Joe Biden stays comfy in his basement, the campaign sends Kamala, her husband, and Jill Biden out on the campaign trail. I’ve never seen a presidential candidate rely on campaign surrogates as Biden does. It is as though the campaign has Sleepy Joe bubble wrapped and stored away until Election Day. It is understandable given his frail appearance and tendency to deliver gaffes in his speeches but it is still noticeable.

Kamala Harris made a trip to Cleveland, Ohio, and let’s just say things got a little weird. As she was introducing herself to supporters, she yells hello to “Ohio”, and quickly stops to ask a staffer, “Are we in Cleveland?” Her mic picked that quick exchange up. Needless to say, a video clip soon circulated on social media because C-SPAN was covering the visit. Clearly, the campaign tipped off the press that she would be making the stop because cameras are set up to film her.

Footage captured by C-SPAN showed the Democratic vice presidential candidate turning to a staffer and asking, “Are we in Cleveland?”

After apparently getting confirmation of her location in the swing state, the California lawmaker said: “Hey, Cleveland, it’s Kamala!”

Watch the clip and then I’ll point out something else I noticed.

Did you hear how she pronounces her name? She introduced herself as Kam-a-la, not Ka-mah-la. That’s interesting, right, given how we’ve been scolded any time her name is not pronounced as Ka-mah-la? Whoever says Kam-a-la is usually scolded as some kind of racist or sexist for not bothering to learn the proper way of pronouncing her name. It’s a ridiculous complaint and this shows how silly it is. At the 5:30 mark in the video, a staffer walking behind the candidate begins chanting her name, “Kam-a-la”. It is only natural to look at Kamala’s name and pronounce it as you would Pamela. Apparently, Kamala does the same. The scolds are desperate to try and speak up about an issue that isn’t there, as it turns out. It’s just another excuse to call people racists.

Kamala walked up and down the long line of people waiting outside to vote. She made a few brief remarks to encourage them and thank them for coming out to vote. There was no social distancing in the line, by the way, and some folks were not wearing masks. The first section of the line was happy to see her and clapped and cheered. Further back in the line her greetings were met with silence and stares. It was all a staged campaign stop meant to look like she was just randomly stopping by to thank voters. In pre-COVID days, presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates might bring along a box of doughnuts or some kind of treat for election workers but I don’t recall seeing a vice-presidential candidate arranging to stop and thank voters for waiting in line to vote, cameras in tow.

But wait, there’s more. She made an appearance at Cuyahoga Community College to encourage voters to cast their ballots for the Biden-Harris ticket. During her speech, she made a gaffe that Joe Biden has made several times. Kamala said the death toll in the U.S. from the coronavirus is “over 220 million” Americans. Yikes! The death toll is high at 224,000 but it’s nowhere near 220 million.

Ooops, she did it again. Kamala Harris again claims that two-thirds of the U.S Population has died in the last several months. #BidenBrain pic.twitter.com/5B9G2TCm6z

— Michael J. McDonald (@McDonaldNV) October 24, 2020

Wasn’t Kamala supposed to be the rising star, the woman who will be the steady one on the Biden-Harris ticket? She is supposed to be a reassuring force to counter Joe’s obvious mental decline. Instead of going that way, it looks like Biden’s early dementia is rubbing off on her.

At Cuyhoga Community College she spoke to about 75 people, according to this news report. Notice that the local reporter pronounces Kamala’s name as we have been instructed by our betters to do.

Joe Biden isn’t exactly going to break a sweat campaigning for himself in the last days of the campaign. He is said to be scheduled to travel to Georgia this week. The Biden campaign is flush with campaign cash and is likely to go to some potential Democrat pick-up states if the polls are correct. That’s still a big if, and the campaign doesn’t want to be too overly confident as the Clinton campaign was in 2016. Sending Biden to a red state like Georgia during the last days of the campaign where his polling numbers are good may backfire.

The campaign is now signaling a last-minute push in some of those 17 states they’ve identified as opportunities to not just win back what was lost in 2016, but expand their pathway to 270 electoral votes and beyond.

Two of the states are Georgia and Texas, where polls this week show a tight race, and neither candidate polling above 50% in in Texas. That’s led some allies in the Lone Star State to express frustration that the campaign hasn’t done more to capitalize on their competitive position in the state a Democrat hasn’t won since 1976.

Beto O’Rourke has been pleading with the Biden campaign to send Joe to Texas to do some campaigning since the polls remain close. Kamala is scheduled to visit the state on Friday. She will be the first vice-presidential candidate to campaign this close to a presidential election in Texas in the last 30 years. Democrats are fired up and determined to turn Texas blue. We’ll see if they are successful this time around. I remain hopeful that Trump will win Texas but I do think it will be the closest race for the Republican presidential candidate in many years.

“It would be so helpful to have the top of the ticket make an investment in Texas,” former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who endorsed Biden in March, told ABC News.

“Pennsylvania is an illustration of the law of diminishing returns: You can grow another hundred million in Pennsylvania and I don’t know that it’s going to move much more than the last hundred million did. You could invest 15 million, 10 million in Texas, and it would be catalytic,” the former Texas congressman added.

While Biden himself has not yet visited the states during the general election, they haven’t been ignored: The former vice president is set to visit Georgia on Tuesday, where he will give his “closing argument” for the 2020 race in Warm Springs. His running mate Sen. Kamala Harris traveled to the state on Friday, and a source familiar with her travel expects Harris to also make a trip to Texas soon. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and Jill Biden have both made visits to the states as well.

“We have some good opportunities in states … like Georgia and Texas,” Ridder said.

Remember, Good Old Joe said that Beto can be his gun czar so if Biden wins the presidential race, we have that to look forward to. That choice alone should send conservatives running, not walking, to the polls. A Democrat hasn’t won the presidential race in Texas since 1976. Trump won Texas by 9 points against Hillary in 2016. That was the worst showing for a Republican presidential candidate since Bob Dole carried Texas by 5 points in 1996 over then-President Bill Clinton. And so it goes. There are 8 days left until the election.