Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
by: Matt Taibbi
List Price: $13.95
Prices subject to change.
Price: $12.55
You Save: $1.40 (10%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Description:
The 2004 Election Was a Circus, and Matt Taibbi enjoyed a Front-Row Seat.
As a correspondent for the New York Press, The Nation, and Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi scoured the political landscape for hard-hitting news stories. But the closer he got to the politicians, the more pompous and vapid they appeared. How could he write anything meaningful about these puffed-up martinets, much less vote for them? Nevertheless, Taibbi forged on and continued his responsibilities as a serious campaign reporter—though not without frequent bouts of blind panic, drug use, and donning a gorilla suit.
Spanking the Donkey indicts the surreal irrelevance of today’s mainstream politics with barbed wit and caustic intelligence. Follow Taibbi as he covers the primary for the 2004 presidential election, joining him for a spot on John Kerry’s campaign plane, face-to-face encounters with John Edwards’s pancake makeup, enough Howard Dean press conferences to memorize the good doctor's stump speech by heart, and—just to spice things up—a two-month stint working undercover in a Republican campaign office in Orlando, Florida. Brimming with uncensored opinions and total truth, Taibbi captures the real American political mind; as a patron at Flo’s Bar in Manchester, New Hampshire, eloquently puts it: “They all suck . . . who’s running?”
“Gonzo journalist Matt Taibbi will do anything . . . to bring political reporting back to life. Spanking the Donkey is all the more necessary in the aftermath of an election that harnessed enough liberal outrage to light the Vegas strip, cost more than a billion dollars, absorbed hundreds of hours we will never get back, and achieved absolutely nothing.” —Salon
The 2004 Election Was a Circus, and Matt Taibbi enjoyed a Front-Row Seat.
As a correspondent for the New York Press, The Nation, and Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi scoured the political landscape for hard-hitting news stories. But the closer he got to the politicians, the more pompous and vapid they appeared. How could he write anything meaningful about these puffed-up martinets, much less vote for them? Nevertheless, Taibbi forged on and continued his responsibilities as a serious campaign reporter—though not without frequent bouts of blind panic, drug use, and donning a gorilla suit.
Spanking the Donkey indicts the surreal irrelevance of today’s mainstream politics with barbed wit and caustic intelligence. Follow Taibbi as he covers the primary for the 2004 presidential election, joining him for a spot on John Kerry’s campaign plane, face-to-face encounters with John Edwards’s pancake makeup, enough Howard Dean press conferences to memorize the good doctor's stump speech by heart, and—just to spice things up—a two-month stint working undercover in a Republican campaign office in Orlando, Florida. Brimming with uncensored opinions and total truth, Taibbi captures the real American political mind; as a patron at Flo’s Bar in Manchester, New Hampshire, eloquently puts it: “They all suck . . . who’s running?”
“Gonzo journalist Matt Taibbi will do anything . . . to bring political reporting back to life. Spanking the Donkey is all the more necessary in the aftermath of an election that harnessed enough liberal outrage to light the Vegas strip, cost more than a billion dollars, absorbed hundreds of hours we will never get back, and achieved absolutely nothing.” —Salon
Alternate Versions:
Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category:
- Books » Specialty Stores » Political Parties » Purple Politics
- Books » Subjects » Nonfiction » Government » Elections
- Books » Subjects » Nonfiction » Politics » Political Parties
- Books » Subjects » Nonfiction » Politics » U.S.
- Books » Subjects » Nonfiction » Politics » General
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Funny and informative
Matt Taibbi is great at writing as the disgusted Washington outsider, trying to examine how things work there.The results are very informative, hilarious, often filthy, and kind of depressing.In this book, Taibbi looks inside at how election campaigns work, with staged photo-ops and speeches that mean nothing, while the press plays along trying to make a story out of the entire, pointless exercise.Taibbi points out how the press cooperates to keep real information and choice out of elections, ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - Great Book
This is a great book.A must for anyone interested in the workings of America's elections.
Rating: 
- 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, ... Read More
Rating: - 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.
- Funny and informativeMatt Taibbi is great at writing as the disgusted Washington outsider, trying to examine how things work there.The results are very informative, hilarious, often filthy, and kind of depressing.In this book, Taibbi looks inside at how election campaigns work, with staged photo-ops and speeches that mean nothing, while the press plays along trying to make a story out of the entire, pointless exercise.Taibbi points out how the press cooperates to keep real information and choice out of elections, ... Read More
- Spanking the DonkeyTaibbi 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 ... Read More
- Great BookThis is a great book.A must for anyone interested in the workings of America's elections.
- Frustrating and scatteredI'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, ... Read More
- 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.
