Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season @ richardeward.com

Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
by Matt Taibbi
from Three Rivers Press

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Spanking the Donkey
  Taibbi is a journalist similar to Hunter Thompson, and the 'gonzo' style of reporting. He takes no prisoners in his approach to coverage of the ludicrous process of a presidential campaign, with all its distractions, relentless schedule, and lame stump speeches. If you like hard-hitting, no-nonsense political coverage and analysis with a good (though dark) sense of humor, you'll enjoy Matt Taibbi's writing as much as I do. Also recommended is his "Smells like Dead Elephants", because as harsh (and deserved)... more info

• Great Book
  This is a great book. A must for anyone interested in the workings of America's elections.

• Frustrating and scattered
  I'm pretty liberal, so I don't object to Taibbi's politics or disappointment with the system, but I still found myself powerfully frustrated with this book. I saw him on "The Colbert Report" and found him delightful, and expected the same from the book. He's insightful about the public-appearance apparatus behind politicians-- examples of Dean's behavior compared with Kucinich's were really interesting-- but mostly I felt the book to be a well-sourced diatribe. Taibbi seems very angry (with good reason,... more info

• The most astute observations ever to emerge from a gorilla suit.
  There's little I can offer that hasn't been said in other reviews here. But I want to add my voice to those championing Taibbi.
  Readers not paying attention might mistake his writing for sophomoric rant, but it's actually eloquent. Having read his book I read the "news" differently, running everything through new and improved filters.
  If I ran the world, Spanking the Donkey would be required reading for every voter. Guerilla journalism at its best.

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