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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 17th of August, the David Plotz's Dream Come True Edition.

I'm John Dickerson, sitting in for David Plotz.

He's not with us, but Emily Bazelon is here.

She's not here.

She's with us, though.

You're in New Haven, Emily?

I'm in Boston.

She's in Boston. Oh, my God. And Dave Weigel is with us, though. You're in New Haven, Emily? I'm in Boston. She's in Boston.

Oh, my God. And Dave Weigel is with us with me here in Washington. Today we're going to talk about

Paul Ryan, David's dreamy, kind of platonic ideal of a statesman, man, and noodling partner. Then we're

going to talk about Fareed Zakaria and the charges of plagiarism against him and a kind of series of – we'll talk about Joan O'Leary, I imagine, also, and his version of making up quotes.

And then finally we're going to talk about Dave Weigel's amazing series on Progressive Rock, which came out, which was published this week, and which is the product of long and amazing work that he was able somehow to do while simultaneously covering the campaign.

So let's start with Paul Ryan, Emily.

It's been almost a week since the late-night announcement went out on Friday that Mitt Romney was going to unveil his vice president in the early morning of Saturday.

So what do we think about Paul Ryan?

I'm surprised by this choice. I got a brief warning of it because Dave Weigel happened to be staying at our house the night before the pick.

And so my husband and I asked him who he thought it was going to be.

...