Reporter to WH: Say, Biden's Been Apologizing a Lot Lately, Huh?

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl has a well-earned reputation for asking White House press secretaries uncomfortable and tough questions.

And he did so again today:

Karl’s tone raises the following question even if he doesn’t ask it explicitly: Isn’t it sort of astonishing that the vice president publicly and privately apologizes as often as he does? I mean, it’s one thing to ask for forgiveness every now and again for accidentally using a “poor choice of words” or whatever; it’s quite another to routinely spend more time expressing remorse and walking back comments than advancing the president’s agenda. Has Uncle Joe finally become a liability?

To his credit, Biden’s “decades of experience” did help the president get elected -- twice. He of course made the 2008 Democratic ticket more palatable to voters questioning then-Sen. Obama’s youth and inexperience. But if nothing else, his six-plus years in office have demonstrated one thing: He’s not cut out to be president.

He may be “one heartbeat away,” as they say -- but what concerned progressive is going to nominate Joe Biden over the likes of Elizabeth Warren or Hillary Clinton in 2016? Despite the latter’s string of gaffes herself, she seems eminently more qualified to lead the nation than a guy who can’t stop drawing and generating negative attention in the press.

Biden once said he can “die a happy man” without becoming president. And that's probably a good thing because, well, it doesn't look like he ever will be.