Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Heights of United States Presidents and presidential candidates (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. JForget 00:01, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Heights of United States Presidents and presidential candidates
AfDs for this article: 
 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

Delete. I am in pure shock. How on earth did such a trivial article get to grow on Wikipedia for so long? It's hard to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with the article, simply because nothing is right with it. I see there are a few reliable sources with non-trivial mentions of the issue, but I seriously doubt that if a few journalists wrote some articles on the Heights of Blue Peter presenters that it would be included. It's clear that we need to apply some WP:COMMONSENSE. DJ 22:35, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Merge part of it to Heightism. Definitely a notable issue that people have written about. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:19, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep Notable, if only because it does seem to come up every presidential cycle. I agree it's a silly topic, but it's one that keeps getting mentioned by lots of people. That makes it notable, trivial, and silly. Ray  Talk 00:04, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Strong keep. I strongly deny that this article is trivia. Firstly, it is part of the general category on lists relating to the United States presidency, which includes many aspects of the Presidents' lives, including their nicknames, pets and whether they're left-handed or right-handed.  If their height is trivial, then so are these other aspects.  United States Presidents occupy a significant part of US history and society, so it is reasonable to document more aspects of their lives than other people.  Secondly, as this article highlights, the height of US presidential candidates is a particularly topical issue in presidential politics, as it has been suggested on a number of occasions that it plays a role in which candidate voters prefer.  That this is a particularly noteworthy phenomenon is verified by seven different sources in the article.  Furthermore, it fits in well with the topic of Heightism in general, which is linked at the bottom of the article and which also notes the issue of whether height plays a role in US politics.  This article has been nominated twice before for deletion - on 2007-02-08  and on 2008-11-27  - and each time it failed. Wcp07 (talk) 00:07, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I smell WP:OTHERCRAPEXISTS. DJ 00:16, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Strongest possible keep. This is an enormously notably aspect of every election cycle with 7 different sources and four pieces of additional reading attesting to its recurrence as a staple in American politics.  Not WP:TRIVIA ("Avoid creating lists of miscellaneous information.") because the information is not "miscellaneous".  Meets WP:N because (1) it has had significant coverage as mentioned above in (2) reliable secondary sources, (3) independent of the subject--Loodog (talk) 01:55, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep Long before there was a Wikipedia, there were political observers who believed that height provided an edge in a presidential election (i.e., that the taller candidate was more likely to win). Like the "Curse of Tecumseh" or "zero year curse", it's one of those oddities that people would turn to an encyclopedia to find out whether it was true, or at least what the origin was.  Were it not for that context, then there would be nothing upon which to build an article.  As such, if someone wanted to compare which candidate had the bigger waistline, or the lighter hair color, or the darker eye color, there's not a popular belief that goes with that.  Mandsford (talk) 02:44, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * KeepHeights_of_United_States_Presidents_and_presidential_candidates has been viewed 11920 times in 200907. Looks needed!93.96.148.42 (talk) 03:42, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * WP:POPULARPAGE tells us that that is no reason to keep the page. DJ 07:35, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Strong keep. This is a real aspect to how the electorate views presidential candidates, that I've been reading about for decades.  Completely deserving of an article.  Wasted Time R (talk) 10:44, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * KeepThis is actually VERY informative and factual on an issue of widespread general interest (if not earth shattering importance). Bdrasin (talk) 18:52, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * p.s. from the 'Blue Peter' reference, I'm guessing that DJ is British and may be unaware at how frequently this topic comes up each presidential cycle.12.177.23.62 (talk) 23:40, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Strong Keep. This is actually the third nomination for this subject and it was speedy kept last time.  69.253.207.9 (talk) 07:42, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Strong Keep. I think this is of interest to people from time to time.  I wanted to know Thomas Jefferson's height which led me to see this "delete" suggestion.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.195.225.142 (talk) 12:04, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.