Hmm. Instead of Hillary’s pretty empty non-concession speech last night, maybe the cable news networks should have shown her opening act:

Early in his speech, Tom Buffenbarger [president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers] asked, “So now we have a decision to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?” Taking off the gloves, he said, “Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring.”But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie “Network,” he yelled into the microphone, “Give me a break! I’ve got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.”

But here’s a problem with surrogates. Folks in the arena there for the Hillary rally heard it. But they’re already convinced. (Or there was nothing else to do in Youngstown last night.) You and I are reading it, but our minds are probably already made up one way or the other. The folks who Hillary needs to hear it – persuadable Democrats in states like Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont will probably never hear it.

Unless, of course, we hear comments in this vein from Hillary or Bill.