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Title: Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
ISBN: 0307345718
Author:
Matt Taibbi
Publicate Date: 2006-08-22
Publish: 2006-08-22
List Price: $13.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.80
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.44
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.16
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| Customer Review: |
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1: 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) as his assessment of Democrats is, the republicans get it considerably worse (again, deserved).
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2: Great Book
This is a great book. A must for anyone interested in the workings of America's elections.
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3: 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, granted), and I found it hard to slog through so many pages of his rants without any sign of hopefulness or direction. The book was more like a blog of his campaign trail experiences than a fully structured book with a conclusion. I'd rather watch him on Colbert again.
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4: 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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5: Funny, insightful, thoughtful and immature...
I'm a middle-aged Republican who hates the trivialization of the English language (and in particular the overuse of the "f" word) and so I suppose that I should have hated this book. But it's too funny, and in parts too insightful, to dismiss it that easily. Although some of the articles of which the book is a compilation seem forced and artificial, others more than make up for it. I do wish that he had avoided the Hunter Thompson-like drug trip bits, which say more about him than they do about the candidates he covers. This immaturity aside, I have to, with some reluctance, recommend this book. I'm just sorry I missed his Daily Show appearance, which sounds like it captured the best aspects of the book.
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