Joe Biden's vice presidential election has been one of Washington's best-kept secrets, but a supposedly accidental news release and Biden's own mocking notes are raising expectations that the winner is Kamala Harris.
Speculation about VP choice is a parlor game that is played every four years in Washington, but this time the stakes are unusually high.
Biden would be 78 years old, the oldest American president in history, and has hinted that he may not seek a second term, making his deputy the leading candidate to assume the party's nomination.
Biden, who strongly leads the polls against Republican President Donald Trump, has also increased the interest factor by declaring well in advance that he would only choose one woman. This will be just the third time in US history that a woman is chosen, even if both previous cases, Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008, resulted in losing tickets.
In line with his ultra-discreet campaign, Biden has kept leaks about his intentions at bay.
Media speculation has waned and flowed from big hitters like Senator Elizabeth Warren and former UN Ambassador to Barack Obama Susan Rice, to strong late entries like Florida Congresswoman Val Demings and Senator Wounded from Tammy Duckworth war.
Harris has always been in the mix with an impressive resume that includes her own Senate performances, her run for the Democratic nomination before giving up on Biden, and, in the Black Lives Matter era, the fact that she's black.
On Tuesday, Biden said she would reveal her decision "in the first week of August."
"I will let you know when I do," he told reporters.
But what if you already have it?
On Tuesday, in her hand, was a sheet of paper with the words "Kamala Harris" on it.
Below, there were a number of positive points:
"Don't hold a grudge" and "great help in campaigning" and "great respect for her."
If Biden also kept notes on her other possible vice presidents, she wasn't holding them in a way that allowed, accidentally or not, an AFP photographer and others to take a photo.
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