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language. Hello and welcome to the slate political gab fest for February 12, 2016, the Happy Valentine's Day, Rubio Robot Edition. I'm David Plotz of Atlas of Secura. I am in Washington, D.C., in our studio, or last week in our barred studio. Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine is in New Haven. Hello, Emily.

Hello, that was, that title for the show really, like, smushed together two completely different concepts for me. I'm still thinking about it. Huh. Okay. Well, some of us are in love with Marco Rubio. Oh, right. I am. I forgot. You know, I think I'm naming my crush on Marco Rubio has evaporated. We'll talk about that. That can be a whole separate topic.

Maybe we'll make that the Slate Plus.

I don't think anyone really needs to plumb the depths of that one. Well, you may not be alone in that, which is why it would be really interesting. There is John Dickerson, Face the Nation. John, you are aware? I am in Greenville, South Carolina, which is a lovely town except for the fact that it's 21 degrees,

or maybe it's up to close to 30 now, but it's quite cold here.

And John is there because, hey, GabFest listeners, Saturday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, John Dickerson,

moderating what promises to be a scorcha of a Republican debate.

So tune into that on CBS at 9 p.m. on Saturday. It's going to be – it's not just going to be great because John is doing it.

But actually, this one's going to matter, John. So good luck.

The fate of the country is in your hands. Yeah. No, that's – boom. That's fine. On good luck. The fate of the country is in your hands.

Yeah. No, that's fine.

On this week's GabFest, we will dispel with a fiction once and for all that John Dickerson does not know what he is doing.

He knows exactly what he's doing, thank God.

Then after we've done that, we will talk about the race.

So first, we will look at the Republicans after New Hampshire.

...