Obama's 'Punjab jab' in Time's top 10 bloopers

Washington: US democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's "Punjab jab" against his rival contender Hillary Clinton has made it to Time magazine's list of Top 10 Campaign Gaffes.

Listed No 9 on Time's list of presidential campaign trail faux pas is "The campaign of Democratic Senator Barack Obama referring to Clinton as 'Hillary Clinton, D-Punjab,' in a jab at her work on behalf of Indian-Americans."

Last June, Obama's campaign sparked controversy by circulating a memo accusing the former first lady of pandering to the Indian American community by referring to her as "Clinton (D-Punjab)" - journalistic shorthand for Democratic senator from Punjab.

It also accused the Democratic front-runner of getting "tens of thousands" from companies that outsource jobs to India.

Rising star Obama quickly made amends by apologising for the "Punjab jab" as the Indian-American community took umbrage, denouncing his memo as "the worst kind of anti-Indian American stereotyping".

Other gaffes on Time's top 10 list are:

• Republican Rudy Giuliani (former New York mayor) saying he was at "ground zero" as often as the rescue and recovery workers.
• Democratic Senator Joseph Biden (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) calling Obama "the first mainstream African-American (presidential candidate) who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy".
• Republican and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's claims about his hunting experience.
• Republican Senator John McCain singing "bomb, bomb, bomb ... bomb, bomb Iran."
• Democrat nominee for vice president in 2004 John Edwards' $400 haircuts.
• Romney saying "we ought to double Guantanamo."
• Giuliani taking cell phone calls from his wife while addressing audiences.
• Clinton saying she wants to "take those (oil company) profits and put them into a strategic energy fund".
• Republican Fred Thompson (former senator and TV show actor) saying he couldn't remember the details of the legal battle over whether to keep Terry Schiavo alive.

Schiavo, who lived in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years after suffering brain damage in Feb 1990, died in March 2005 when her feeding tube was removed after a prolonged legal battle. Some have since maintained that her death constituted "judicial murder".