Customer Reviews:
 Enjoyable, with some good insights September 18, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
 Perfect August 14, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I buy stacks of books in the genre of current events/memoir/non-fiction. This book made me laugh, made me think, made me happy. I gave my copy away, I plan to buy another copy and I plan to give more copies as gifts. I want to read more by Matt Taibbi, and to that end, I've subscribed to Rolling Stone. His perspective is so unusual. I like that his background education and life experience is Russian. Awesome!
A refuge for the literate and the critical February 12, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 Worth reading, but... October 15, 2005
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
..this guy tries too hard to be "the new Hunter Thompson." The scenes where he took drugs, etc. seemed too staged.
He whines about the emptiness of his life (or life in general), yet mocks anything that might possibly fill the void...
I enjoyed the book, but it was far too self-congratulatory, and the gorilla suit thing is a rip-off of D. Keith Mano's Take Five.
Funny Book, Many real insights October 2, 2005
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
OK, I saw this guy on the Daily Show. I'm not supposed to buy books off the Daily Show. I guess. This book is funny and it has more journalistic insights than anyone has a right to expect. I guess this shows how far journalism has fallen.
The picture this book paints of the political process, choosing the prez, is about what I'd expect, just judging by the results. But now I know in more concrete terms.
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