Speaking on the legacy of Hillary Clinton at New York's 92nd Street Y last night, veteran journalist Carl Bernstein ruffled the graying feathers of several old gals who came to defend the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Bernstein was promoting the paperback release of his Hillary biography, Hillary Clinton, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, to an audience that skewed over 50, female, and staunchly—rabidly even—in Clinton's corner. No shock, then, that much of Bernstein's candid interview with irksome New York 1 reporter Budd Mishkin was viewed by the Hillary-crazed audience as no less than a rocket-propelled grenade aimed at the hull of their gal's campaign.
It didn't help that the conversation focused on Bernstein's conception that a "fear of humiliation runs through Hillary's life," from coping with a misanthropic father who verbally abused her mother to managing Bill's philandering. When Bernstein got to talking about how Hillary had failed the Washington, D.C., bar exam and hadn't told even her closest friends for decades, he caused one older woman to scream out to him for harping on the point. It wasn't yet time for the Q&A, and these chicks were gettin' ornery! Wild times at the 92nd Street Y.