Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street: Aug. 14

Dems Get Dumb

From Portsmouth, N.H., to Hillsboro, Mo., to Kinhasa, Congo, the stars of the Democratic Party hit new Dumbest heights this week when faced with financial questions.

President Barack Obama came up with a clunker while answering a health care question in a town hall in Portsmouth, N.H. -- and not the kind of clunker he could trade in for cash.

Explaining why a public option would not crowd out private insurance, Obama said, "My answer is that if the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining ... then I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you think about it, UPS(UPS Quote) and FedEx(FDX Quote) are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

Sorry to say, Mr. President, but comparing your plan for a government-sponsored insurance option to the U.S. Postal Service probably hurts your cause more than it helps. The Postal Service announced last week it lost $2.4 billion from April to June, bringing the year's losses so far to $4.7 billion. The Postal Service says it expects to be $7 billion in the red when its fiscal year ends in September.

The president's former primary opponent and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had her own moment this week when she snapped at a nervous Congolese university student Monday. The student had mistakenly asked what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thought about an international financial matter.

"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she asked incredulously about a multibillion-dollar Chinese loan offer to Congo.

"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she jabbed at the poor kid. "I am not going to be channeling my husband."

No, but she did a very good job of channeling Al "I am in control here!" Haig.

Meanwhile, in a small town 30 miles south of St. Louis, Sen. Claire McCaskill ( D., Mo.) made the biggest mistake of all. In a boisterous town hall meeting assembled to discuss the Democratic Party's health care bill, the senator asked the crowd, "You don't trust me?"

The throng shouted back in unison, "No!"

Who said there is no such thing as a stupid question?

Dumb-o-meter score: 95 -- Dems saying Dumb Things and not a peep from Vice President Joe Biden. Where have you gone, Joltin' Joe?