It's not just conservatives who have noticed that Kamala Harris is hiding from the media and acting like she has an unassailable lead in this race. Democrats are seeing the same thing and at least a few of them were honest enough to say so to NBC News.

"They're trying to keep her away," Steve Shurtleff, a former Democratic speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, said of the Harris campaign. "It's like seeing your favorite Hollywood actor and then they're on a talk show and they can't even speak.

“The president of the United States has to be able to be on their toes all the time and answer questions,” he added. “It’s so obvious she’s been avoiding the one-on-one interviews, and the voters deserve better.”

The voters may deserve better but the professional campaign hacks working for team Harris have clearly decided that Harris can't do better. There's an old saying: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. That's the Harris campaign's top strategy in a nutshell. She did surprisingly well in the debate after weeks of prep, but there must have been a lot of flop-sweat behind the scenes because the campaign's strategy hasn't changed. They are still trying to limit the potential damage of an unscripted interview.

The campaign is sending her to appear on 60 Minutes (pre-recorded and edited) and she'll also be going on some late night talk shows (the friendliest and softest possible interviews). And that's it. With one month left to go, they are trying to run out the clock, hoping her convention momentum is enough.

“The campaign is taking a chance that they can run out the clock and Trump’s weaknesses will be enough to win,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist. “But the danger in that is if you don’t define your own candidacy well enough, people will start defining it themselves.”...

“It’s been a mistake to shield Walz and Harris from interviews,” a Democratic lawmaker said. “It’s like playing basketball — if you don’t play for weeks, you’re not going to get it into a game and do well. You’ve got to be on the court."

And finally NBC gets around to stating the obvious, something I pointed out more than a week ago. The Harris strategy is the same as the Biden strategy. Keep the candidate out of sight to avoid calamity. But an anonymous quote from someone connected to the campaign is pretty revealing about how this works.

Worried that Biden, 81, might make a gaffe, his campaign carefully controlled and limited his public appearances. Many of the people who ran Biden’s campaign are working to elect Harris...

“They are very cautious,” a person involved in Harris’ race said of her campaign. “Sometimes it seems like they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I know Harris is willing to do whatever they ask her to do. The campaign is controlling all of this stuff. She’s in the ‘wind me up and let me go’ — she’s willing to do whatever it takes.” 

Harris may be willing to do whatever but the people around her have seen how well that has gone over the past 4 years and they aren't taking any chances. They believe they can play defense for the next four weeks and eek out a win. I've watched enough basketball games to know that strategy doesn't always work, espeically when it's close. But the key point is that Kamala isn't actually leading this campaign, they are. Who are they? The Biden and Obama communications people who are stage managing the Kamala show.

Meanwhile, Trump is returning to Butler, PA tomorrow for what is likely to be a large and energetic event. He will not stay on script. He will likely say some things he should not. In short, he's doing the opposite of playing it safe and trying to run out the clock..