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Hello and welcome to the plate political gap fest for August 7th, 2015, the nine German Shepherds and one raccoon edition.

I'm David Plotz of Atlas Obscura.

I'm in a lonely studio, not at our home studio.

We're all scattered to the winds. John Dickerson,

of Faith the Nation, where are you? Well, I'm actually, I'm now back in D.C. after a very early morning flight from Cleveland this morning. And Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine,

where are you, Emily? I'm in Maine, kind of near New Hampshire,

looking out on some nice trees from a little tiny room with a phone in it. Oh, so jealous.

On this week's Gab Fest, the first Republican debate more anticipated than, I don't know, a JZ album,

more DVR than a Game of Thrones finale.

It was Thursday night in Cleveland. We delayed our taping a day just so we could we could absorb it and revel in it.

Did it live up to its expectations? Who won it? We'll talk a lot about that. Then Washington is buzzing a little bit

...