Roger Hodge

A look at how government authorized leaks to the press inform the public and how journalists' access to the White House could 'become ever more corrupting.'

At the end of the month, President Barack Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address. At that time, we can expect to hear him lay out his roadmap for the next two years. In the weeks leading up to his address, we'll talk with some key political observers about direction the president should and must move in while he's still in office. Today we speak with Roger Hodge, author of "The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism." Hodge is a fierce liberal critic of the president, and says Obama must focus on economic stimulus and job creation and end policies that kill jobs and attack our civil liberties.

2009 marks the twenty-fifth year of the Harper's Index, which first appeared in the March 1984 issue. To celebrate, Harper’s magazine has published a 3-page Index in the January issue. Excerpts include:

Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, "I ...