It's the Vice President Speculation Gab Fest.

This is the Slate Political Gab Fest for Friday, April 4th, 2008.

I'm Dale Wilman.

John is in Ohio, and he joins the Gab Fest from there by phone.

Emily is gone, so Will Celetan joins David in Washington, and he joins the Gab Fest from there by phone. Emily is gone, so Will Celetan

joins David in Washington, D.C. On this week's agenda, the Democratic battle rolls on. The

speculation begins over a Republican running mate. It's the economy, stupid, and the Gab Fest

honors Martin Luther King on the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

And now, to introduce the discussion, here's David.

Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest.

I am David Plotz here in the Slate, the Lavish Slate Studios in Washington, D.C.,

with special guest Will Salatan, Slate's Human Nature and Politics,

not politics, human nature column, which is a science and culture blog that Will runs.

And then by phone, joining us is Slate political columnist John Dickerson, who is in, well,

where are you, John?

I'm in Ohio.

On a hunch, I came out here thinking that, you know, with the primaries coming up here, I thought I'd get in position and, you kind of get the lay of the land. And who's up in Ohio? You know, it's odd. There's a cussinage boom. It hasn't, you know, local favorite. And, you know, I think it's going to be a really interesting race in Ohio.

I'm glad to see you're using Slate's travel budget well to get out there and cover the hot places.

Now, are you actually going to dip into Pennsylvania while you're there?

I will only dip into Pennsylvania telephonically while I'm here. So I'll be coming back to D.C.

tomorrow night. So tell us, since back to D.C. tomorrow night.

So tell us, since you're really close to Pennsylvania, tell us what's going on in the campaign.

...