Now why would anyone think that Democrats have to find a way to boot Kamala Harris out of the way to compete in 2024? This performance at a Paris presser should make all Americans confident in this administration’s ability to deal with adversity … right? Er, not really, no. Just as Joe Biden did two days ago in trying to catch up with the anger over rising and obstinate inflation, Harris acts as though consumer pain just came to her attention.

And acted flummoxed at the question over it to boot:

.@VP Kamala Harris on soaring inflation under her failed leadership:

“Prices have gone up. And families and individuals are dealing with the realities of that bread costs more that gas costs more.” pic.twitter.com/tlNdrlHtMz

— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) November 12, 2021

Her full answer didn’t get any better:

When asked about the high #inflation rate in the U.S., @VP Kamala Harris tells reporters that the White House is taking it "seriously." She then talked about #BBB. It seems like the administration doesn't have a short-term fix, which could become a big #political problem. pic.twitter.com/lAPWwnYTWM

— HJ Mai (@HJ_Mai) November 12, 2021

The BBB certainly isn’t a short-term fix, as the New York Times pointed out this morning. Even its value as a long-term fix is debatable, and dependent on making the kind of productivity gains that usually come at the expense of jobs and wage pressures in the labor market.

Both Biden and now Harris not only keep flogging it anyway, they have no other answers for inflation in the meantime. Their surprise and late-to-the-party comments about consumer prices makes them appear even more out of touch and in over their heads. Voters who know full well that Biden’s policies helped set off this inflationary spiral expect Biden and Harris to act to curtail it now, not a year or more from now while middle- and working-class households see the value of their savings and buying power drain away needlessly.

This kind of rhetorical fumbling could cost the White House and Democrats dearly, Tim Smart warns in US News & World Report. Smart is clearly sympathetic to the plight of Biden and Harris, but points out that it doesn’t take much to lose voters on economic matters:

Republicans were quick to jump on Biden, posting photos of $5-a-gallon gas and invoking memories of 1970s-style inflation. One meme on social media showed a picture of former President Gerald Ford with a WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button.

But the more apt comparison might well be George H.W. Bush, another two-term vice president who won the White House and was roundly lambasted as a patrician out of touch with the economic woes of everyday Americans. That portrayal, reinforced by a photo of Bush seemingly confused by bar code technology at a grocery industry convention in 1992, doomed Bush as he campaigned unsuccessfully for reelection.

That story was later revised to show that the barcode scanner was actually a new kind of scale that was new to the industry and had not been in widespread use before it was unveiled for Bush. But the damage was done. …

Now, with an economy that has largely recovered from the shock of 2020 and with a labor market that has shown robust strength in recent months, Biden is facing a messaging crisis trying to square reality with perception. And, as inflation likely persists into 2022, the task is becoming more difficult.

“If there was any lingering doubt, this morning’s inflation report confirms consumer prices are officially out of control,” Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza wrote Wednesday. “Accelerating at the fastest pace in 30 years, consumers are seeing double-digit increases in everything from used cars and trucks to gasoline and eggs to pork and beef. While the notion of perpetually low interest rates, as well as unlimited government spending and debt creation may sound ideal to some, like everything in economics – and life – there is a cost. In this case, rapid inflation, not to mention negative implications for investment and hiring.”

Smart basically adopts every PR dodge the White House has used to explain away the economic problems Biden has either created or failed to address. The Delta variant did hammer the economy, but the political damage came in large part due to Biden’s bad management of expectations in the spring and his reversal on mandates. The supply chain was creaking ever since last fall at a low level, but Biden had months to deal with it before it exploded into a full-blown crisis. He didn’t address it significantly until the press forced him into a response.

Inflation, however, is almost entirely Biden’s doing. Larry Summers and other economists warned him in February to hold off on his massive third-tranche stimulus bill, predicting accurately that it would touch off rapid and hard-to-manage inflation. For months, Biden has ignored the obvious warning signs in the CPI. Instead, he’s clucked about “transitory” inflation and tried to tell consumers that they should be grateful for the economic activity that inflation provides. Only this week did Biden or Harris take it seriously, long after voters started feeling the pain of inflation.

This bumbling response to an obvious question shows that Biden’s not the only one who’s completely out of touch. And this is why getting rid of Harris won’t solve Biden’s problem, because Harris is only an echo of the problems Biden brings to the table himself.