The Barnicle clan should be grateful Mike landed the MSNBC gig.  It could have been tough making ends meet had he chosen a career in used-car sales.  I base that on some hilarious footage from today's Morning Joe, as Mike failed to persuade a Hillary fan to back Barack.  And don't miss Mike Murphy's brilliant analysis, at the end, of what was missing in Hillary's speech.

At 7:35 AM EDT, a Hillary supporter, Judy Duvall of Fort Collins, CO, was brought by the set, still sporting her Hillary button.  Under questioning from Joe Scarborough, Judy said that Hillary's speech was great but hadn't convinced her to support Obama.  A bit later, after Republican consultant Mike Murphy had offered his IMHO-brilliant analysis of Hillary's speech [see below], Judy was brought back to the set to permit Barnicle to make his case.

View video here.

MIKE BARNICLE: Here's what we'd like to ask. Thank you for coming back and putting up with us, by the way. It's October. Pretend it's October. The issues have come down. They've been mentioned. The social issues: choice for women. Equal pay for women. Equal pay for men and women in various states plagued by unemployment. Health care for all.  Your choice then is Barack Obama versus John McCain. You've got your Hillary button on.  Will you have it on then?  What would you do?

Showing some real flair for the dramatic, instead of answering Duvall indulged a long pause, before breaking into a wide grin that silently said it all.  Barnicle seemed somewhat abashed by his inability to close the sale.

BARNICLE: There's your answer, ladies and gentlemen!

JOE SCARBOROUGH: OK!

MIKE MURPHY: I do know one; I can't prove this, but I believe it to be true.  I know one Hillary Clinton voter who is going to vote for John McCain: and it's Hillary Clinton.

Bonus Coverage: Hillary Endorsed the Dem Candidate, Not Obama

Here's that Mike Murphy analysis of Hillary's speech I touted. It actually came between Judy Duvall's two appearances but I've placed it at the end of the video clip for continuity's sake.

MURPHY:  It was the best speech she's ever given in her career.  I thought it was a great speech for her.  I thought it was a good, solid speech for Obama. I think part of the sub-text, though, that's interesting, that won't be important out in voter-world, but I think all of us pundits and Kremlinologists are going to enjoy, is she couched the whole thing as an endorsement of the need for the Democratic party to win on its issues with Obama as the nominee. I did not hear the personal endorsement of she believes Obama's the right guy now to do the job.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah!

MURPHY: I don't think she's against Obama: she did the party-soldier thing. But that nuance is important. It gives her plenty of distance should Obama lose, and I'm sure it was noticed quietly by the Obama high command.

Scarborough ran with Murphy's theme, supplying some insightful particulars.

SCARBOROUGH: That's what we were talking about before with Buchanan.  There are two ways to give a speech like this: you can talk about what you did in the campaign; who you met in the campaign, which is what she did.  Or you can say "I know Barack Obama.  I've worked side-by-side with this man, one of the most impressive politicians I've seen. I was there when he was pushing the leadership to make sure that we get health insurance for all Americans, when he made sure that da-da-da-da-da." You can finish the speech.  That wasn't the speech she gave last night.

MURPHY: Yeah. Those pages were missing.  It was a speech to vote Democrat, and a speech that praised Obama as the nominee, and she supports him. Made it clear. But it was not a personal endorsement of Barack Obama the man, in a powerful way.

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.