The Purdue Live Gabfest

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Listen to the Gabfest for April 8 by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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This week's Slate Political Gabfest was recorded live at University Church in West Lafayette, Ind., next to the Purdue University campus. Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the federal budget showdown, the 2012 presidential campaign, and college admissions practices.

Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:

A Wall Street Journal piece on the public's divide over who to blame for a shutdown.
A Washington Post piece on the potential impact of a government shutdown.
An NPR interview with the man who managed the 1995 government shutdown.
Ronald Brownstein's National Journal piece on the increased polarization of Congress last year.
Slate's Jacob Weisberg calls Paul Ryan's 2012 budget proposal "brave, radical, and smart."
Charlie Cook's National Journal piece on the Republicans' risky plan to revamp Medicare.
John's Slate piece on President Obama's re-election kickoff.
A National Journal piece on what it will take to beat Obama in 2012.
A National Journal piece identifying Indiana as Obama's biggest hurdle in 2012.
A New York Times book review of Andrew Ferguson's Crazy U.
A Harvard Crimson piece arguing for an admissions lottery at the school.
Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece on what college rankings really tell us.

David chatters on an 1865 letter from former slave Jourdan Anderson to his former master.
Emily chatters on public service announcement videos that try to prevent bullying.
John chatters on a Harvard professor's attempt to quantify how much time members of Congress spend taunting one another.

The e-mail address for the Political Gabfest is . (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Posted on April 8 by John Griffith at 2:54 p.m.

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