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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for Thursday, March 5th, 2009.

This is John Dickerson with David Plotz here, the author of Good Book, and Emily Bazelon, I can't do the subtitle because

it's, I'll forget it.

You left out esteemed, brilliant author.

I thought those were implied.

Oh, okay.

And Emily Bazelon, who's in New York City at the Slate offices in New York, we're taping

early this week for a variety of reasons that are too boring to go into, but we are

going to discuss one, but we are going to

discuss one, topic one and two will be issues related to the Obama administration and's

developments this week. Topic number three will be Emily's topic about the Justice Department

memos that were released this week from the Bush administration, maybe a few other legal

things. But I want to ask you, Emily, this first question, which is the Bush administration, maybe a few other legal things. But I want to ask you,

Emily, this first question, which is the president is, according to a couple of polls that came

out this week, most interestingly, the Wall Street Journal, NBC poll, incredibly popular. Highest

popularity he's ever had in the high 60s. He's ever had, he's been president for like a week.

What's the deal? He's still quite popular he's been present for like a week. What's the deal?

He's still quite popular. But there seems to be a tiny disconnect between his popularity in the high 60s and the popularity of his stimulus bill, which is in the high 50s, or his housing bill,

...