Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for Friday, August 27th with David Plotz here in Washington, Emily Bazelon, somewhere out in the country.

And I am John Dickerson, of course, the former governor of the state of New Yorkork welcome all of you to the gap fest we're

going to talk first about so great to have you guys back we're just say like the gab fest

audience this is i know you guys grew to hate me in the last few weeks i apologize they hated

you they so grew to hate me and i apologize to all of you and i know you're so happy to have

john and emily back it's just all to make us feel needed it's a very a very nice gift of to all of you. And I know you're so happy to have John and Emily back.

It's just all to make us feel needed. It's a very nice gift of all of those people we paid to post those comments. First, we're going to talk about the primaries of this week. Then we're going to talk about Ken Millman, the former chairman of the Republican Party, who announced that he is gay or came out of the closet and said he was gay this week. and then the third topic will be Glenn Beck's rally.

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, actually, are rallying in Washington, D.C. But before we get to the meat of the show, we've got a couple of things, interesting things happening. One is we're going to talk about a live show happening in New York. We'll give you details at the end of the

broadcast. And then also we're going to try a little experiment. Our fabulous intern, Gail,

writes up these summaries of the week's news that help us stay informed as much as our brains can

allow. And we're going to publish a shorter version of that based on the topics we talk about today,

so that if you want to go and read some of the things that we read in putting the show together,

you'll have a nice, tidy guide to that.

And we'll post that on the Facebook page, but it'll also be linked through the Slate GabFest page.

And have I taken care of all of our announcements? And there'll be even one more special announcement, too. Then there will be linked through the Slate GabFest page. And have I taken care of all of our announcements?

And there'll be even one more special announcement, too.

Then there will be another special announcement again at the end, followed by a souffle and a small spritz.

Okay, so Tuesday, we had primaries in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, and Vermont, along with the primary runoff in Oklahoma.

And it was a night of upsets and surprises in Alaska.

Joe Miller defeated Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent senator, or he looks to have defeated her.

There are a little few formalities to go.

But he was supposed to lose badly, and he didn't.

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