The New York Times reports in its election updates that Joe Biden is expected to reveal his running mate as soon as today. Or maybe tomorrow. Or make that Thursday. An earlier update reports that the process is — finally!  — drawing to a close and takes him to task for taking so long:

In a sign that the choice is now in Mr. Biden’s hands alone, the four-member committee that screened his potential running mates is said to have effectively disbanded — its work is complete, Biden allies said, and there is little left to do except for Mr. Biden to make up his mind.

The former vice president, however, has not been known for his punctuality so far in the presidential race and the timeline could well slip again.

The Times’s sniping notwithstanding, I believe there is a calculation to Biden’s timing. First, he wants to show the country that, unlike the impulsive Malignant Narcissistic Sociopath he is trying to replace, he, Biden, makes deliberate decisions based on all the evidence he can gather.

But there is a second reason: He’s messing with Trump’s head.

Trump absolutely cannot stand it if someone else is the center of attention. We’ve seen this all along, most recently and most disastrously in the coronavirus briefings. If he can find out in advance when Biden plans to make his announcement, he will do everything he can to upstage it. (It’s possible his presser on Saturday at his golf club was set up when it looked like Biden was going to announce his VP choice then.)

Biden has perfectly legitimate reasons to announce his VP on his own schedule. But to me, it sure looks like he’s also using it to drive Trump even further off his rocker. And that’s yet another sign that he knows what he’s doing in running the campaign.