Jeffrey Toobin: Clinton's Refusal To Concede "Deranged Narcissism"

On CNN's election night coverage Tuesday, political analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Hillary Clinton's refusal to concede the election "deranged narcissism." Watch Toobin below:

The folks over at The Hotline put together a roundup of other pundits' reaction to Clinton's speech in New York City tonight:

"Well whatever that was, it wasn't a concession speech." -- FNC's Hume

"Clearly, she's trying to position herself, keep her options open." -- NBC's Russert, on HRC's speech (MSNBC).

"If I were Barack Obama, if I heard that speech, I would not be very happy. ... They are living in parallel universes right now." -- CNN's Borger.

"This was a defiant speech, against all the kind of advice that [heavyweights] within the Democratic Party gave her" -- Ex-WH adviser David Gergen, on whether he was surprised by Clinton's speech (CNN).

"She did everything but offer Obama the vice presidency" -- GOP strategist Alex Castellanos (CNN)

Comments

[conscioushope]

08:42 PM on 06/07/2008

Toobin for BO's VP!!!

I belong to Toobin's fan club!

[Rendon76]

07:44 PM on 06/07/2008

He is spot on. More people should talk frankly and truthfully­. That indeed was not Clinton's night and for her to try and make her night was, well, deranged narcissism­.

[ornovscot]

06:31 PM on 06/07/2008

I do think that in a few months' time Senator Obama will choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
Of course, I hope this doesn't happen, as Senator Clinton would be a Vice President who would
attempt to hinder President Obama's discretion and who would hamper some of the better policies likely he would follow in the realm of foreign policy.

There must be a great deal of pressure being brought to bear on him in this regard. It would be interestin­g to know what Senator Feinstein said during the meeting that was held between Senators Obama and Clinton.

The Clintons yet represent a powerful force, and they represent rather powerful and extremely wealthy interests.

Recently I've read articles about the Hsu financial scandal. This story has yet to develop. I will be quite interested to see how it develops, especially if Hillary Clinton is not chosen as Senator Obama's running mate.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

03:21 PM on 06/07/2008

Yeah, and all these "deranged narcissist­ic" pundits told her to quit before California­, and before New York, and before Pennyslvan­ia, and before Puerto Rico, and before South Dakota, etc.

[LisainNYC]

06:30 PM on 06/07/2008

Newsflash Captainski­ppy: CA and NY primaries were on the same day, Super Tuesday, and NO ONE was telling ANYONE to quit before Super Tuesday.

[thecanadian]

01:53 PM on 06/07/2008

Mr. Toobin. Everyone is now "in the court" so please - while
Hillarys comments were strong - PLEASE make sure
that CNN remembers - we are tired of the on-going sage of
Clinton and Obama.

Obama is the Nominee now so we hope to hear much less of the Clintons!

[sf94127]

01:12 PM on 06/07/2008

Toobin says a lot of strange things and this is one them. A few days ago he asked why Obama supporters are so enthusiast­ic, implying there was nothing from Obama to justify enthusiasm­.

Toobin is a lawyer; he sould be brought out for ciminal trials; he is out of his depth in ths arena.

[TurgidCaterwauling]

12:27 PM on 06/07/2008

If you're a republican stragegist­, you've got to love this; if dems work hard enough pointing the finger at each other, it may be possible to give away this election on top of the two that were stolen.

[Reckoner]

12:26 PM on 06/07/2008

He's right, he just had enough guts to say what most wouldn't.

[DesertZ]

12:02 PM on 06/07/2008

Jeffrey Toobin is WAY over the top. How did he go from an OJ groupie to a political pundit? Guess I missed the middle part!

[LaurenceFlorida]

07:35 AM on 06/07/2008

Jeffrey Toobin's language may have been colorful but his point was sound. No one was looking for Hillary Clinton to make any "decisions­" on Tuesday; she was simply expected to acknowledg­e reality: the race is over - period. Clinton's complete lack of class at a critical moment may be attributed to blind ambition.

Of all the blunders of the Clinton campaign this last one was the greatest and will cost Hillary Clinton dearly in time.

[jimmy2001]

02:21 AM on 06/07/2008

JT always struck me as a real straight talker, not to be confused with Mcsame version of straight talk

CNN needs to give him (Toobin) more airtime.

[fflores]

12:50 AM on 06/07/2008

Toobin replied thanking me for the email i sent him for "calling a spade a spade"...

[lucidthoughts]

12:38 AM on 06/07/2008

With all this talk of 'history making' from the gushing Obama supporter Toobin, he fails to ever mention the history (unless called out on it) that was made with the 1st successful woman Presidenti­al candidate ever in this country's history . Nope. But what can you expect from a country run by men that gave women (of any race) the right to vote in 1920 (19th amendment) as opposed to the 14th amendment that gave men of all races the right to vote 50 years earlier. Oh, yes that Toobin, the unbiased history & law scholar. ROTFLMAO.

[lefthandedrn]

01:10 PM on 06/07/2008

Sorry to tell you, lucidthoug­hts, but your thoughts are far from LUCID. ALL women couldn't vote in 1920 (19th amendment)­. Black women couldn't vote. That came along much, much later. Even after the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, we were still tormented and could not vote. So get your facts straight. This is no reason to support a candidate because she is a woman just like it is no reason to support a candidate just because he is a man, an African American or any other reason. Obama has never played the race card. Why should he? And I am tired of people saying that we, as African Americans, only voted for Obama because he is African American. If that were true, then Jesse Jackson would have gotten a larger percentage of the African American vote than he did. So, take your self righteousn­ess and move on. Find another issue

[Gebby]

12:08 AM on 06/07/2008

the media is still talking about clinton. when will they stop. she lost. may the best man win and he did. so talk about obama for a change ....please­. hillary has been losing since super tuesday and the media spends all their time talking about her. i repeat myself.

[aaronssongs]

10:24 PM on 06/06/2008

Jeffrey Toobin is, perhaps, the smartest, and most savvy pundit on tv.
Toobin and Gergen ought to have their own show.
I like Fareed Zakaria, as well. Too bad ABC didn't appreciate him....the­ir loss is CNN's gain.

[Bushgoesnucular]

07:11 AM on 06/07/2008

Hear, hear. I never miss a chance to listen to Toobin's take on legal or political events.