Harris cannot claim credit for declining inflationary pressure on the economy and, at the same time, argue that the all-consuming emergency represented by high prices necessitates the recklessly broad intervention into the private economy she has proposed.

Harris isn’t talking to engaged, thoughtful voters at this point. She’s speaking to voters on the margins who she thinks will respond to sentiment more than a coherent prescription for sound fiscal and monetary policy. That’s an insult to voters’ intelligence, but it’s at least a rational calculation. Nevertheless, her campaign should worry that Harris’s inability or refusal to defend the central plank of her plan to combat inflation will leave the public with the impression that she is not, in fact, a “serious” thinker.