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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for November 30th, 2012, The Going Nuclear Edition.

I'm David Plotz, the editor of Slate, here in Washington, D.C. We have a crazy switch today.

Emily Bazelon, usually our New Haven editor, usually our Ivy League correspondent is here in Washington, D.C. Hello, Emily. I'm slumming it. Hello, David. And John Dickerson

has finally made it to the Ivy League's. John, you join us from the campus of Harvard University.

Is that right? That's why I am. Yes. I'm on the David Plotz walking tour.

Did you see all the places? I didn't do anything interesting in college. I was going to try to make a joke, but I did nothing interesting when I was at college.

Oh.

I wore a lot of flannel. Are you wearing flannel?

Actually, I am wearing flannel. I'm wearing gray flannel trousers for this day of activity. But not like, not like

grunge Kurt Cobainey flannel. Yeah. No flannel for me right now. And I understand, John, that you

are sitting in a dark hotel room without power. Is that right? I am. I left this symposium and came

and all the lights were on and then suddenly I was in the dark, which, as the listeners know, is my

permanent condition anyway.

Well, we will hope that the power on your cell phone holds out long enough for you to bless

us with some Ivy League inflected insights.

I'm sure that time at Harvard will have brought you the level of intellectual sophistication

...