The Absolutely Comfortable Gabfest
Listen to Slate's show about Obama’s support for gay marriage and Mitt Romney’s days as a prep school bully.
Posted Friday, May 11, 2012, at 11:29 AM ET
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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson discuss the two major topics of the week: Obama’s momentous declaration of his support for gay marriage rights and a Washington Post piece on Mitt Romney’s past as a prep school prankster and bully.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:
- Obama’s ABC News interview in which he affirmed his support for gay marriage.
- Joe Biden’s Meet the Press interview in which he preempted the president by expressing his support for gay marriage.
- David’s Slate piece on why we shouldn’t believe Obama’s conversion story.
- Emily’s Slate piece on what Obama’s declaration means legally and symbolically.
- John’s Slate piece on the political machinations behind the scenes of Obama’s announcement.
- Loving v Virginia, the Supreme Court case that finally outlawed anti-miscegenation laws.
- The Washington Post piece on Romney’s bullying of a gay student and blind teacher.
- Emily’s Slate piece on whether or not we can draw conclusions from Mitt Romney’s actions during adolescence.
- John’s Slate piece on how Romney’s bullying story fits in to the history of presidential origin myths.
- The Boston Globe book, “The Making of Mitt Romney.”
- John’s Slate piece on the four kinds of campaign controversies.
Emily chatters about this week’s Time magazine cover, which features an uncomfortable photo of an attractive mother breast-feeding an older child.
John chatters about a New York Times slideshow of photos from the 1960 Democratic National Convention.
David chatters about a graphic novel, Jerusalem: Chronicles of the Holy City by Guy Deslisle.
The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Andrew Bouvé and Dale Willman. Links compiled by Aviva Shen.
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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and writes about law, family, and kids. Her forthcoming book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Empathy and Character, will be published in February. Find her at emilybazelon@gmail.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at slatepolitics@gmail.com. Read his series on the presidency and his series on risk. Follow him on Twitter.
David Plotz is the Editor of Slate. He's the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and Good Book. He appears on Slate's Political Gabfest.