What do these slips say about politics today?

As Joe Biden gaffes go, this one wasn’t particularly remarkable. The former vice president spoke at a Tampa campaign event earlier this week, highlighting his goal to make it easier for military families to find employment.

“It makes it so much harder for military spouses to find good jobs and build their careers. That has to change,” Biden said.

“A Harris-Biden administration is going to relaunch that effort and keep pushing further to make it easier for military spouses and veterans to find meaningful careers to ensure teachers know how to support military children in their classrooms and to improve support for caregivers and survivors so much more than we do now.”

Come again?

You’re on the top of the ticket, Joe — if you have any doubt, just check the name on the campaign signs. Still, he can be cut some slack, the man did confuse his wife with his sister during his Super Tuesday rally.

On that memorable April evening in Los Angeles, he famously turned to his wife Jill and said “By the way, this is my sister, Valerie!” The women had apparently switched places on stage, which was enough to throw him off.

But Biden’s second-fiddle slip of the tongue stands out because it came on the heels of running mate Kamala Harris’ own linguistic shuffling of the deck.

According to reports, the VP candidate referred to a “Harris administration,” while discussing economic plans during a virtual roundtable Saturday.

“A Harris administration, together with Joe Biden as the president of the United States,” is how Harris put it. She later corrected herself.

That the Democratic presidential nominee and his running mate both referred to Biden in a co-starring role is telling, even if it was accidental. What, exactly, is being hashed out behind the scenes in terms of the part Harris would play should Biden be elected?

Is this a dog whistle to those not entirely sold on Biden that should he win, he would be commander in chief-ish?

Whatever the reason, it says much for the mercurial nature of American politics that someone who didn’t cut it in the primary is now being spoken of in next-presidential terms.

What, exactly, is being hashed out behind the scenes in terms of the part Harris would play should Biden be elected?