I would suggest that, even though the title-The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism-was something of a spoiler, that the forthcoming Roger Hodge book (Roger Hodge was last known as the editor of Harper's magazine) is going to be really quite mean! I base that on this little bitty excerpt-essay that addresses Obama's The Audacity of Hope, a book which, if you have read it, you'll see there is not really that much there, and what is there is a sort of soothing traffic of gentle, blobby ideas that do not add up to very much. But yes, then, after his declaration of [...]

Obviously I did not watch this entire 35-minute Q&A with-or the full 25-minute talk by-unemployed non-former Conde Nast (former non-Conde Nast, I mean) magazine editor Roger Hodge, but I did start them both! (The next question from the Q&A, after the one about the mail, involves the SOCIAL NETWORKS.) The Q&A, obviously, followed Hodge's talk at Duke, which was titled "My Rise and Fall," but only on accident, as Hodge said he actually wanted the talk to be called "Decline and Fall," which he attributes to the title of a book about the Saturday Evening Post (Otto Friedrich, 1970), but perhaps you know it from elsewhere? Anyway, it happened right [...]

And, unlike when he was editor of Harper's, many of Roger Hodge's new friends are women! (Too soon? Totally. It's a shame he was let go. And unfair? Probably! Sorry, it's just that we may never get over the Celia Farber incident. But we hereby offer him a job with us, for sure!)