Customer Reviews

Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season

5 star:		(16)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, a disclaimer: Taibbi is very harsh with Christian fundamentalists and people of similar political beliefs. If you are one of those people, you'd be well-advised to stay away.

On the other hand, you don't have to be a raging left-winger to enjoy Taibbi's commentary otherwise. While the author's politics may be very left of center, he savages Democratic politicians as much or more than Republicans. There is a strong moral center in this book, which is why I characterize it as skeptical, not cynical. Taibbi comes from a journalist family and he has a keen eye for seeing through the spectacle that the political process is--as a symbiotic relationship between journalists and politicians and the junk-food diet public--simultaneously overfed and undernourished.

Taibbi's real bias, if you will, is in favor of substance and thought and against superficial b.s. of all types. So Kerry's ridiculous tarmac football photo ops come under fire, as do the artfully "diverse" Dean photo ops, and the shallowness of Wesley Clark's efforts to act knowledgeable about labor disputes. The only guy who comes out better than before is the one we love to make fun of: Dennis Kucinich. I'll admit that I was at one point a supporter of each of the first three and loved to make of that ridiculous gnome Kucinich. Taibbi expertly demolishes the appeal of making Kucinich into the national laughingstock, pointing that, yes, he looks ridiculous, but it's the media as bully that wants to make fun of him to reassure our own insecurities about not being that guy with the sculpted abs on the cover of Men's Health. Ouch. Touche, Mr. Taibbi.

This book is the perfect successor to Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. It's easy to forget that before Hunter became an overblown drug culture character, he was an incisive and talented political commentator. I hope Taibbi keeps his head on straight and maintains his focus on politics. Enthusiastically recommended.

(And you know what? I take it back. A smart Christian fundamentalist should read this book and, with knowledge of the secular left's impressions of them, write a good Taibbi style analysis of what that tells us. That would make for a good read.)

In SPANKING THE DONKEY, Matt Taibbi presents something the combined forces of the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, and countless dozens of other journalistic outlets proved sadly incapable of presenting: an honest and unflinching look at the 2004 Presidential campaign in all its glorious inanity, irrelevance, and hypocrisy. Taibbi illustrates repeatedly the sheer silliness of the American whistle stop primary campaigning process, from the image-driven beauty contests in which every contestant struggles to make the least possible concrete statements to the press-driven horse race assessments. Along the way, he savages nearly every Democratic candidate, particularly John Kerry and Wesley Clark, reserving a soft spot in his heart only for the intellectual honesty and depth of belief in the quixotic campaign of Dennis Kucinich.

To address the Republican side of the process (since there were no meaningful primaries), Taibbi details a priceless, two-month escapade in which he went undercover as a volunteer in the Florida campaign operation of George W. Bush. In so doing, the author provides a fascinating look at a typical collection of Republican political operatives, campaign volunteers, and the Right's "true converts." He gives us a Tampa Deputy Sheriff who espouses a form of military cloning that would put Hitler to shame, a campaign office staffer who casually throws out a comment to a black volunteer that, "I know how you people don't like to work," and campaign volunteers whose take on Bush's gay policy is, "I don't know. He's never said anything."

More significant, Taibbi speculates from his observations that Republicans are not overtly racist, they simply tolerate or look the other way whenever racism appears among their number. As one campaign office worker noted, KKK country is Bush country. He also comments on the "Left Behind," apocalyptic Christian syndrome: "The problem...with Republicans in general... is that they are incorrigible doubters with an insatiable appetite for Evidence. What they get off on is not Believing, but in having their beliefs tested. That's why their conversations and their media are so completely dominated by implacable bogeymen: marrying gays, liberals, the ACLU, Sean Penn, Europeans, and so on....They are not looking for facts with which to defeat opponents. They are looking for facts that will create opponents."

Beneath this collection of expanded Rolling Stone pieces and selections from Taibbi's New York Press columns lie some disturbing truths and several interesting conjectures on the author's part. Taibbi mercilessly lambastes the mainstream media for their shallowness, their distance from the world of real people and real lives, their avoidance of controversy in order to protect their access to even more campaign trivia and tripe, their clubbiness (among themselves and with the candidates), and their write-850-words-a-day-and-mail-it-in attitudes. He saves some of his strongest diatribes for the press's craven coverage of the President's Thanksgiving Day trip to Iraq, an event that most of the world's press shredded for the callous and transparent publicity stunt that it was. Taibbi brilliantly deconstructs numerous examples of empty writing from the lions of the political reporting scene (Woodward, Fineman, Milbank, Will, etc.) and accuses them as a group of the greatest possible fraud: facilitating the election process as a theatrical ritual for "legitimizing a political process the rest of the country knows instinctively is a bunch of ****." The candidates are irrelevant, as long as we are led to believe that the process is real, that it matters, and that all is well because we all believe in the legitimacy of what we are seeing.

Matt Taibbi's writing is enjoyable to read, sarcastically on point with regard to Democrats and Republicans alike. Every other page contains a memorable comment or a great one-liner. He dissects our electoral process for the meaningless, sound bite-filled beauty contest it is, increasingly a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, engaged in a "race to see which Ivy League graduate is quicker to reach for a duck call at the sight of a Reuters photographer."

SPANKING THE DONKEY is certainly well left of center, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable dissertation on a process so intellectually bankrupt barely half our citizenry can be bothered to participate. Instinctively, it seems, they already know the truth. Mike Taibbi makes it fun to read and think about, but he is also deeply serious beneath the sarcastic veneer. How can you not relish a book whose conclusion on the 2004 Presidential election reads: "The Republicans won last week...because a large number of them stand for being deranged lunatics who believe that the Bible was the last book ever written, and for being intellectual cowards who hide from the terrifying complexities of modern society by placing all of their beliefs in infantile concepts like faith, force, and patriotism."

Matt Taibbi, political contributor to Rolling Stone, New York Press, that magazine with the airbrushed nude photos, and many others, has always been able to wring hilarious true stories from the interiors of gorilla suits and from the hazes of hallucinogens. Now he does it in an easy to carry book form!

Join Taibbi on a whirlwind tour crisscrossing America as the nation decides on which man in an expensive suit the Democratic party fingers to run against Bush. It's a fun ride, and just turbulent enough for you to keep an air sickness bag close by. People from most points on the political spectrum will either love or hate this book, seeing that he shows neither the left or the right in a favorable light. Everyone is a victim of Taibbi's skewering. Pass the hot sauce!

Many of the pieces have been published before, and the best are what stayed. This way I don't have to worry about shelling out $4 for a copy of Rolling Stone if another awful "mall-ternative" band is on the cover. For new readers, he keeps things interesting - has a great gift for metaphor, a sense of humor that can cause sudden stomach pain, and a large collection of celebrity toenail clippings.

Only one disappointment - Punching The Donkey would have been a far better title.

"Spanking the Donkey", Matt Taibbi's journal of the 2004 presidential campaign, is unlike any book of any campaign l've ever read. Resourceful, original and combative, Taibbi seeks to tell the story HIS way....and in doing so, uncovers the sham of those who run for president.

While last year's presidential race seems distant now, the author reminds us that it wasn't too long ago we were enmeshed in an election that pitted two woefully inept men. Taibbi covered the Democratic primary season and then went undercover to work for Bush and although he slams Kerry mercilessly, he saves his best ammo for the current occupant in the White House.

This book grew on me. For the first forty pages l was convinced that "Spanking the Donkey" was written by a man in his mid-thirties for an audience in their twenties. As the book continued, however, I became aware that Matt Taibbi is an exceptionally good writer. His narrative has rhythm and bite. He maintains humor throughout (which is not an easy thing to do) and he is refreshingly opinionated. For those of us who had the misfortune not to see his essays at their time of print, "Spanking the Donkey" is nonetheless a welcome retrospective to last year's hoopla.

No matter what one's political persuasion is there is something in this book for everyone. (I especially liked his criticism of author Bob Woodward) Taibbi's main contribution is to underscore the fact that as bad as the candidates are and as bad as the journalists are who cover them, the whole idea of campaign issues has been lost to rhetoric. For this alone, but for many other reasons, I highly recommend "Spanking the Donkey". I hope Matt Taibbi has another book in mind.

I've been reading Taibbi for a few years now, going back to his first book "The eXile: Sex, Drugs and Libel in the New Russia," which he co-wrote with his former partner at their Moscow newspaper. "Spanking The Donkey" is a fun and funny book, easily the best account of last year's sham presidential campaign, told in the gonzo style of a Hunter Thompson. Whereas in his previous book Taibbi played the straight man role to co-author Ames' druggie-wildman, this time around he's changed his tune and seems to be playing the role of angry drug-fueled gonzoid, so "Spanking" is a departure for those of you who expect Taibbi to play the same role this time as in his first book. For me personally I enjoyed Taibbi's new incarnation most of the time, though admittedly I found myself wondering if he was just acting or if for his next book he'll be adopting some other persona. One thing is for sure: whether or not Taibbi is an imitator, he is about the best there is today.

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.

Matt Taibbi's excellent work is the diamond produced out of the coal mine of the 2004 presidential race. The author is a sharp-edged mix of Hunter S. Thompson and Howard Zinn - informed and outraged at the devolution of politics, but skilled at using satire to throw the sordid mess into sharper focus. The book has dozens of laugh-out-loud passages and few dry spells. Taibbi's skill at placing himself in the narrative reaches toward the ideal of journalism; what's the use unless the reader sees events through thoughtful human eyes? I would pair this book up with Thomas Frank's "What's The Matter With Kansas?" for a keen survey of American politics in mid-decade. Five stars, no hesitation.

Matt Taibbi is about the best political writer to come along in a long while. He is funny, honest and most importantly, devoid of kneepads. No one captures the phoniness and spinelessness of the political media, and the politicians they cover, better than this guy. I've heard the Hunter Thompson comparisons, but I tend to think of Taibbi as more of a modern Mencken type without the snobbery, racism and ethnocentrism. Maybe the scariest part of what I see in these reviews here on Amazon, and society at large, is the fact that people feel obligated to label Taibbi a "liberal" -- as if that were some type of disease to be avoided at all costs. Liberal basically means free thinking, and looking to change things. Who wouldn't want to think freely and change this sham system of ours? If liberal is so bad, then please stop reading and go buy another new Ipod, watch more TV, eat more McDonalds and go practice your cheerleading stunts before your brain accidentally shifts into second gear.

It is also amazing to me that so few people are unable to see through the charade of the media and the political process. Taibbi is part of the literate minority that seems to wonder, and try to understand, why so many people are so easily duped into ideological agreement, and vehement support of, a system that mostly serves a connected, corporate elite that rapes the average person's pocket and exploits their patriotism. He shows how the media, far from being an honest broker, lets this happen in the cases of the shamefully dishonest reporting on the pre-Iraq invasion protests and the candidacy, and utter dismissal of, a sensible, serious guy like Dennis Kucinich. Taibbi's book cuts through all that nonsense, and even tries to understand the uncritical, sycophantic majority that make up my estranged fellow Americans. As long as these shifty candidates continue to get elected by offering enough platitudes on God, guns and gays, expect more of this Bush style parade and rule of the mediocre. I would urge the educated, bewildered, free-thinking minority to take a few hours of refuge in a book like Spanking the Donkey.

Matt Taibbi is a very energetic writer. This book is a compilation of his articles covering the 2004 presidential campaign in the New York Press and Rolling Stone, with some expansion, where indicated. He strives to write in the gonzo journalism tradition of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson, with the same kind of cynicism, drug-induced tirades, and contempt for politicians, the working press who cover them, and the system as a whole. He's got a ways to go to match HST, though, especially his classic work, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, which chronicled the 1972 campaign and which ranks among the very best books ever written about campaign politics.

Taibbi's columns are somewhat uneven in quality. Often, though, he has incredible insights and candid views of many in the political process that we know all too well as bulwarks of the traditional media, and the politicians they cover. He came to admire Dennis Kucinich for his quixotic quest, with his sincerity, uncompromising pursuit of issues, and strength of character in a political process that has very little of any of those qualities on display.

Taibbi is at his best when he offers critiques of the stories of journalists like Howard Fineman, Karen Tumulty, et al., and shows how they are far less concerned with enlightening the reading public than they are with pleasing the politicians they cover, sticking to formulas, attention to irrelevant distractions, and using language to obscure rather than reveal.

I hope that Taibbi keeps writing about the political process, and that he will give the public more information about how journalists think and work. I also would like to see him discuss how candidates for president, such as John Edwards, Wes Clark, and John Kerry may change their approaches, or offer a more mature and thoughtful approach, and how he will discuss potential candidates like Russ Feingold, who is rather Kucinich-like in his views on issues, but more appealing as a candidate.

I also thought his chapter on work as a volunteer for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Orlando, Florida, was at times sympathetic, at times frightening, and often hysterical. He made a great point in talking about how the Republicans are more sincere and less "hip" or wisecracking in temperament and attitude than Democrats. Still, I found fascinating his discussion of how the Florida Republicans, virtually all white, scrambled around to find black faces to make appearances at campaign stops and in their headquarters.

All in all, the book is fairly even-handed and worth reading. He attacks Democrats and Republicans alike. Upon finishing the book, one will come away with the conclusion that he absolutely loathes the journalists who cover the campaigns. They, it is implied, are responsible for a good deal of why our political system is in the mess it's in. I tend to agree.

Spanking the Donkey is a hilarious and down to earth book that explains in plain English what a presidential election is really about - a bunch of career-minded phonies giving press conferences to a bunch of self-serving douchebags. It's painful to see how fake our politicians are, and even though he is clearly a liberal, Taibbi slays Kerry and co. better than any conservative ever could. Taibbi also calls out the rest of the frightened American media better than anyone except maybe Greg Palast has. Best of all, the dude is funny - he had me laughing out loud on the subway more than once, which I hate to do, by the way. This is one of the best "political" books I have ever read, and anyone who doesn't like it should be forced to their own feet.