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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, Jamelle Bouie, and John Dickerson discuss the Iowa caucus and Trump’s recent ad, President Obama’s emotional gun control announcement, and a new book about Ronald Reagan by Jacob Weisberg.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- What’s going to happen in Iowa? The latest presidential polls show Cruz in the lead with the Trump behind, even though Trump thinks he is going to win. Can and will Trump mobilize new groups of voters?
- Trump’s new ad was replete with more lying. Is the profound lesson of Trump’s candidacy that truth doesn’t matter?
- A tearful President Obama announced executive actions on gun control. Paul Ryan calls it a “distraction.” Will Obama’s executive actions result in meaningful change, or is it just a frustrated president’s symbolic gesture?
- We talk with Jacob Weisberg, @jacobwe, about his new book Ronald Reagan: The American Presidents Series: The 40th President, 1981-1989. How much does Reagan have in common with the Republican candidates who all seem to want to be compared to him? What parts of Reagan’s legacy has had a negative impact today? Where did Reagan’s political philosophy come from?
- What’s going on with the Oregon resisters? What do we make of their form of protest? As a group of armed white men meeting little serious consequences for their actions, has a double standard been revealed? Should this story be about mandatory minimums?
- Read more of Slate’s coverage of news & politics
Jamelle chatters about the documentaries Fresh Dressed and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, both available on Netflix, and The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.
Emily chatters about Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes.
John chatters about Ed Yong’s article in the Atlantic “The Incredible Thing We Do During Conversations.”
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Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest (#heygabfest). (Tweets may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Links compiled by Elle Bisgaard-Church.
