Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/John H. Cox

John H. Cox

John H. Cox (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

• Delete - a perpetually losing candidate whose article is entirely sourced by his campaign website and press releases. Ghits appear to be directories of candidates and position summaries derived from his press releases. Otto4711 22:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep and Comment - Um, this is an officially registered, running political candidate. You may argue that this article isn't sourced properly but an AfD process is WAY premature at this point, and smacks of political motivation, which I'm SURE it isn't. However, I must say that the fact (opinion, really) that someone may have no chance of winning, which I'm assuming the nominator means to imply by a "perpetual losing candidate" is not justification for deletion. If so, we will be deleting Dennis Kucinich immediately. - Nhprman ^List 00:09, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

• Dennis Kucinich is an elected member of the United States House of Representatives which confers notability. Cox can't get past a primary, which makes him a perpetual loser. The fact that he's running for president doesn't automatically confer notability. All sorts of fringe candidates file papers but it doesn't make them Wikipedia material. There is no third-party reliable coverage of the man or his candidacy that I can find and an article that is sourced only by the subject's website and press releases is unacceptable no matter who the subject is or what office he's running for. Otto4711 00:16, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

• Reply - I'm sorry, but a front page articlein the L.A. Times confers "notabiliy." Wall Street Journal editor Stephen Moore just mentioned him as a candidate, too. These aren't simply notes on a candidate's Website, they amount to coverage. Not blanket coverage like Obama, but it still goes to create notability. Perhaps the article simply needs to take the dozens of article links on the Website and link them directly, thus veryfying these articles really exist (for example, [1]. And Kucinich, be he an elected Congressman or an elected dog cather, has zero chance of winning the Dem. nomination, and is a perpetual loser by your own definition. He has no business listed with other candidates if this is the standard you're setting, although I realize we're actually discussing a more drastic measure - deletion of an article - and not just unlisting him, which is much more draconian. - Nhprman

^List 15:50, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

• WP:N requires multiple independent sources. And since you insist on dragging Kucinich into this despite his having no relevance to whether Cox should have an article, Kucinich has been elected to the Cleveland City Council, Mayor of Cleveland, served as Clerk of Courts which is usually an elected position and has been elected five times to the House. As compared to Cox whose own article indicates has never won a primary, let alone a local election, let alone a national election. If it gets you all riled up that I called Cox a "perpetually losing candidate" then fine, I withdraw the observation. The point still stands that based on his own self-sourced article and the one independent non-rehashed-press release source that has thus far been presented, he fails WP:N.

• Keep While I'm not sure that I think the article on his presidential campaign is appropriate, given that his name has come up in some of the profiles (for example, [2]), I'd have to say keep, at least until further information develops. Mister.Manticore 04:01, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

• That reads like a rehash of a press release, which doesn't qualify as an independent reliable source. Otto4711 15:04, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

• Comment: I did a google news search for "John cox" president republican (I figure that was a pretty good way of weeding out the billion other john coxes in the world) and got 11 unique google hits, almost all of which mentioned him in passing, at least one of which didn't mention him at all, and most of which were local to Chicago (where he's from) or Iowa (the one place he's really campaigned). So we've got no real info from these sources other than that he's a "long-shot" (duh), and we seem to have nothing from any news source of national renown, which is odd for someone running for president of the nation. That's what I found on the internet, anyway. I'm not going to vote on this yet. If he really is only one of a handful of people to have filed the appropriate papers for running, then he might be worth keeping just for that, but if this turns out to be like the California recall election, in which everyone and his mother field the paperwork and gave it a shot, then he's probably deleteable. I guess the question is, what stops anyone from running? If there were a couple hundred yahoos wanting to take a shot at the governorship of California with no real chance of winning, I can't see why there wouldn't be 100 times more taking a no-chance run for the presidency, just so they can say "hey, I'm running for President!" What has set this guy apart? In any case, I think he should probably be removed from the 2008 election template for now. -R. fiend 15:51, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Okay, just saw Nhprman's link, and that does seem to be a legitimate national story that is actually about the candidate (I didn't see any evidence it was front page, but I could have missed that, also not sure why googlenews didn't display this). However that aricle says "As of early September, 75 people had filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring their intention to run for president," which seems to make Mr. Cox 1 out of 75 rather than 1 out of 10 or so (and since September that 75 has probably increased dramatically). Is there any reason why this guy is more encyclopedic than any of those other folks? -R. fiend 16:03, 25 February 2007 (UTC)