Stand Up, Chuck! Todd Says Biden Has 'Gravitas' Going For Him In Debate

I say "Joe Biden," you say . . . . Joke?  Gaffe machine?  Not Chuck Todd.  In his pre-game commentary for tonight's debate, the NBC political director claimed that, as with Cheney versus Edwards and Bentsen versus Quayle, Biden—matched up against Paul Ryan—has "gravitas" going for him.

View the video after the jump, along with a list of some of Grandpa Gravitas's most famous gaffes.

Note: speaking of gaffes, you might sayTodd [who worked on Tom Harkin's 1992 Dem presidential campaign] had one of his own.  Todd did acknowledge that Biden is prone to "hyperbole."  Problem was, he pronounced it something like "hyper-bowl."  Let's be generous and assume Chuck was going for: Joe Biden--SuperBowl champion of HyperBowl ;-)

CHUCK TODD: He has the same thing going for him that benefited Dick Cheney against John Edwards eight years ago and Lloyd Bentsen against Dan Quayle: gravitas.

Take a stroll down Biden Gaffe Lane, courtesy About.com.

• "Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately." --Joe Biden, Aug. 22, 2012
• “Look at what they [Republicans] value, and look at their budget. And look what they're proposing. [Romney] said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks write their own rules -- unchain Wall Street. They're going to put y'all back in chains." --Joe Biden, speaking to a largely African-American audience in Danville, Va., Aug. 14, 2012
• "I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you." --Joe Biden, citing Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." (April 26, 2012)
• "This is a big f*g deal!" --Joe Biden, caught on an open mic congratulating President Barack Obama during the health care signing ceremony, Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010
• "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's- wait- your mom's still- your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul." --Joe Biden, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive, Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010
• "Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart." –Joe Biden, mistakenly referring to Justice John Paul Stevens, who swore him in as vice president, Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009 (Watch video clip)
• "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs." --Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2008 (Source)
• "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." –Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008 (Watch video clip)
• "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept. 12, 2008
• "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me." --Joe Biden, speaking at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, Sept. 10, 2008 (Source)
• "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007 (Source)
• "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking." --Joe Biden, in a private remark to an Indian-American man caught on C-SPAN, June, 2006