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Top 5 Joe Biden gaffes [VIDEOS]

By KATE STANTON, UPI.com
(UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg)
(UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo

Whether you're terrified (or secretly hoping) that Vice President Joe Biden will put his foot in his mouth during Thursday night's vice presidential debate with Republican candidate Paul Ryan, there's no doubting that the gaffe-prone veep has a history of verbal slip-ups.

There are so many to choose from, but we run down the top five Joe Biden gaffes.

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1. Big F***ing Deal

After months of vitriolic political debate and a massive congressional battle for health care reform, President Barack Obama finally signed his Affordable Care Act in a 2010 White House ceremony. Unable to contain his excitement, Biden whispered into Obama's ear: "This is a big f***ing deal." While you're not really supposed to drop the F-bomb on such an important occasion, it's hard to disagree with his assessment of the bill's importance.

2. Jobs is a three-letter word. Wait, what?

It's not exactly reassuring when you're campaign running mate has difficulty counting the number of letters in the word "jobs," especially in 2008, when the unemployment was (and still is) such an important issue to American voters. Biden made the remark on the campaign trail in Athens, Ohio in October, 2008.

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3. Obama is "clean" and "articulate"

Biden raised eyebrows in 2007 when he described his Democratic primary opponent Barack Obama as a "clean" and "articulate" black man. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden told the New York Observer. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." Biden later said that his quote had been taken out of context.

4. "Back in chains"

"[Romney is] going to let the big banks write their own rules — unchain Wall Street," Biden said to a crowd -- that included hundreds of African-Americans in August. “They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” President Obama defended his veep, saying that "Folks like to get obsessed with how something was phrased even if everybody personally understands that's not how it was meant."

5. "Stand up, Chuck."

At a campaign rally in 2008, Biden asked wheelchair-bound Missouri State. Sen. Chuck Graham to stand up. "Oh, God love you," Biden said when he'd realized his mistake. "What am I talking about. I'll tell you what, you're making everybody else stand up, though, pal."

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