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Hello and welcome to the Slate political GabFest for October 26th, 2012.

The God intended this GabFest to Happ happen edition. I'm David Plotz,

the editor of Slate, here in Slate's D.C. headquarters. We are scrambling the lineup today. Emily Bazelon,

Slate Senior Editor, joins us, as always from New Haven. Hello, Emily. Hello. Will Salatan,

also a Slate Senior Editor. It's here with me in D.C. Hello, Will. Hey, David. Hello, Emily. Hello. Will Salatan, also a Slate senior editor. It's here with me in D.C. Hello, Will.

Hey, David. Meanwhile, John Dickerson, Slate's chief political correspondent, political director of CBS News, is on the road.

And John is joining us by tenuous cell phone connection from, I guess, a Romney bus careening across Ohio.

Is that where you are, John? No, I'm in a car driving towards careening across Ohio. Is that where you are, John?

No, I'm in a car driving towards Defiance, Ohio.

I'm off the bus, and under my own power, as all Americans should be.

So John is just going to join us for the first part of the show while we have this cell phone connection,

and perhaps he'll magically reappear for cocktail chatter.

Election Day approaches at a gallop.

And this week we're going to talk first about the final weeks of the campaign

and whether Mitt Romney has made his case that he's a credible candidate to the American people.

Our second topic will be yet another Republican candidate rape controversy.

...