The year was 2019, and the Democratic primaries had just started in earnest with a two-night debate with potential candidates. Lester Holt of NBC News looked at the stage and asked everyone a simple question: "Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?" Joe Biden did not raise his hand. However, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris did. After the debate, Harris immediately backtracked, claiming she misunderstood the question.

That flip-flop was the first of many. Harris refused to take any hard stances on the debate stage, and when she stumbled into a hard-left stance, she bumbled her way back out. We've witnessed that again here as Harris launches a Presidential campaign. Her staff is disavowing every previous statement she's ever made on anything controversial. Harris is trying to claw back from the most liberal voting record to sound more moderate.

We're likely about to witness another one of those flip-flops. Kamala Harris announced her support this week for price controls on groceries. After three years of denying inflation's impact on everyday Americans, Harris and Democrats are running out to solve the crisis.

The Associated Press, trying to put the best spin on this possible, can't find any economic support for the problem Harris identifies or her solution. Democrats are asserting that corporate greed is what is driving the inflation problem. The AP asks the question: Did price gouging cause inflation?

The answer: "Most economists would say no, that it was a more straightforward case of supply and demand." The AP asks an even more critical question: Will Harris' proposal lower grocery prices? The answer: "Most economists would say no."

The Associated Press uncritically reports the casualty numbers from Hamas every day out of Gaza as an attack on Israel. And not even the Associated Press can look at Americans with a straight face and call this a serious policy proposal.

The Washington Post Editorial Board panned it even more. They called her proposal a "gimmick" and demanded to know why she would "stamp out" price gouging when that's not even remotely the issue. A separate op-ed writer for the Post exasperatedly exclaimed, "When your opponent calls you 'communist,' maybe don't propose price controls?"

It's been a total disaster of a launch. Price controls were supposed to be Kamala Harris' first foray into announcing policy for everyday Americans. The Financial Times reports that "Democrats on defensive after Kamala Harris' economic plans poorly received."

NBC News had Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Meet the Press and pressed her on the Harris price controls. Whitmer couldn't defend it. She meekly said, "I think people are reading too much into what has been put out there."

But what do we know about Kamala Harris? She backtracks, flip-flops, and claims she misunderstood the question, issue, or point. Kamala Harris is face-planting in her first major policy rollout about as hard as she did when the spotlights got hot in the primaries. Harris got in one good shot on Biden in a debate and imploded after Tulsi Gabbard hammered Harris on jailing thousands of Californians for smoking pot.

One of the benefits of a primary system is that it forces politicians to hone their speaking skills and drive toward policy platforms that represent a majority of Americans. Winning over your base and voters outside your base to form a working coalition is difficult. Kamala Harris has never done that. She's never won a Democratic primary or faced an actual general election.

That inexperience is showing right now as she tries to determine both what she believes and what Americans will take seriously. Anyone with a working knowledge of economic or political history could have told Harris this was a bad idea. Harris has degrees in economics and political science, which means price controls are a layup of policy proposals to get right. She can't even do that right now.

Most people, when they're this ill-prepared for a job or project, will get imposter syndrome, which can cripple them from responding to a situation. You don't have to worry about that with Harris. She will boldly march in and declare policy positions on things practically settled in partisan politics.

Price controls are one policy issue that Democrats and Republicans generally agree on. Everyone views the deployment of Nixon's price controls in the 1970s as a major mistake. Even Richard Nixon knew his price controls wouldn't work.

Yet here we are, staring at the newly formed Democratic ticket, debating one of the dumbest ideas put forward by any politician. Democrats demanded their party take this path, and we're learning really quickly what happens when Harris is forced into a lawmaker role: she implodes.

Kamala Harris hasn't changed from 2019. She still has no idea what policy platform to pursue, but you can bet she'll flip-flop all over the place until she's comfortable. The last politician with a flip-flop problem this bad was Mitt Romney. A good first debate didn't save him.

It seems unlikely Harris will stick with price controls as a major policy. The questions is how long she takes this media heat, and when does she pivot away? She's always flip-flopped in the past, there's nothing stopping her from returning to her old ways now.