Looks like I'm an election behind. Does not in any way diminish the entertainment value of this book at all, but it does make it a little hard to remember what he's talking about sometimes.
Spanking the Donkey is compilation of pieces Matt Taibi wrote for various publications during the 2004 election. It details the different insane things Matt did in covering the election and following the the candidates would probably give normal news directors and editors a stroke. He rails violently, profanely and - most importantly - hilariously against the ridiculousness and inanity of following an election, especially on a day-to-day basis. He talks about how to track the repeating and sometimes conflicting pieces of candidates stump speech from campaign stop to campaign stop and how to compete to get your questions in while on the campaign plane (drugs help).
As a fan of Matt's from his pieces in Rolling Stone (several of which I recognized in the book) reading him in long form is great, but it can be a bit overwhelming. His profane rantings against the absurdity of all of the campaigns and the press covering them can be vicious and I probably would have appreciated them even more if I wasn't trying to finish this book in day. This can certainly be read in pieces and would probably be even more enjoyable read that way. If you are looking for a particular portion to cherry-pick from the book, go with the NCAA Basketball style tournament at the end of the book where Matt sets up a competition between the various national columnists in who can write the most egregious, cliche ridden campaign drivel. It is always great when he is attacking his supposed colleagues.
Book can be found here (I bought bargain priced version)
http://www.amazon.com/Spanking-Donkey-Dispatches-Dumb-Season/dp/1565848918/ref=ed_oe_h
12 down, 88 to go. April 5K book 2. Finished 4/16/2009
This post was written listening to Mike Franseca's podcast
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