The Boardwalk Bromance Gabfest
Listen to Slate's show about the durability of President Obama’s most prominent bipartisan relationship, the showdown over judicial appointments, and the next stage in the fight over Obamacare.
The Political Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.
Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there. Or follow us @SlateGabfest!
To listen to the discussion, use the player below:
On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the durability of President Obama’s bipartisan relationship with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the showdown over judicial appointments, and the next stage in the fight over Obamacare.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
● John thinks that the Obama-Christie relationship is a good test for the prospects for bipartisanship.
● Emily thinks that President Obama’s legacy will be secured or lost in the courts—so he needs to make his judicial appointments a priority.
● Bloomberg has a good rundown of the latest political maneuvering over the implementation of Obamacare.
● “More than half of all people without health insurance live in states that are not planning to expand Medicaid,” reports the New York Times. Reacting to that story, Ta-Nehisi Coates surveys the states that plan to reject the expansion and says it’s an example of how “ostensibly color-blind policy can disproportionately hurt people of color.”
● Congress allows states much power whenever it creates a major federal statute, because states become responsible for much of the new law’s implementation. So argues Abbe Gluck, associate professor of law at Yale, in her paper “Federalism From Federal Statutes: Health Reform, Medicaid, and the Old-Fashioned Federalists’ Gamble.”
John chatters about english to english, a Tumblr project by the Guardian that aims to catalog—or catalogue—differences between American and British English and culture.
Emily chatters about Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
David chatters about the new secretary of energy’s hair.
Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. 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 Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Jeff Friedrich.