Talk:Paul Wolfowitz

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Contents 1 Article is still way too long 2 Meat Axe 3 Link to World Bank 4 freedom house 5 Democrat 6 Cut down the world bank section

[edit] Article is still way too long

This article is on the record charts: It is the 67th longest article in Wikipedia as of November 25th. Most of the first 66 are list pages. So it is in the top 5 of non-list articles. Only a fanatic could think that an encyclopedia page for Wolfowitz could deserve this length. One way or another, it should be split or shortened, or both. Greg Kuperberg (talk) 00:10, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Wolfowitz is undoubtedly an important figure, with a long and controversial career, but at the moment his article's longer than those of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush! Something's not right there. This article needs to be cut down, or broken up into smaller articles per Wikipedia:Summary style; at the moment it's well over the recommended maximum length for Wikipedia articles, and some computers may have trouble editing it as a result. Terraxos (talk) 03:27, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Article is comprehensive, how is long 'bad' unless you want to remove vital information from it?

--220.239.179.128 (talk) 23:45, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

It has a page full of material on him as an undergraduate student. If we really needed to have such "vital information," we should move it into a sub-article on his early life and make this top-level article more readable. WP:SUMMARY STYLE is how we roll here. Cool Hand Luke 02:18, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

The article far more than comprehensive. It is full of non-vital details that, on the contrary, obfuscate the minority of vital information about this person. In fact, the article is completely out of control, but it's a real pain to try to reduce it because there are too many people ready to hit the revert button no matter what you remove. Greg Kuperberg (talk) 05:22, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Meat Axe

Frankly I couldn't stand wading though all this shit! WP:bold I've reduced the length from over 150KB to about 115KB, with 2 or 3 sections left to go, and I don't think anything I've taken out will be missed (e.g. the blockquotes in the footnotes). However, I think somebody should read a few of the sources, and go through it to see if it makes sense. All I've been doing is removing garbage. Last version before the meataxe was May 18, 2008 [1] if anybody wants to revert or compare content!!!. Smallbones (talk) 04:19, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

It's now down to 97k from 150k, 1/3rd reduction, with about 95% of the content. It could use a bit more reduction, and I'll ask that other people check it out, and smooth some of the rough edges I may have left. One benefit from this is that there is now a little bit of room to add something if something new happens or is reported. Please note that most of what I took out was repeated material, wordiness, and something of an edit war in the footnotes. I think that I managed to keep 100 out of 112 footnotes, but removed the blockquotes and catiness in the footnotes. I expect some contributors will have complaints - but before you complain, please compare to the May 18 version and tell me which you think is better. Smallbones (talk) 19:56, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Bravo! Frankly it could use way more reduction. A lot of the material that is conceivably worth keeping could be in some separate page. Wolfowitz simply isn't five times more important than, for instance, Spiro Agnew. Greg Kuperberg (talk) 21:23, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Link to World Bank

I for one object that the link to the world bank is maintained under his photo on the pane on the right. he has resigned and is no longer associated with that organization. we can link him to the american enterprise institute. if no one objects, i will change the link in the next 3 days. --Mediterraneo (talk) 16:57, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] freedom house

he served as board member of freedom house, not mentioned in the article. may be smb may include it.-ArazZeynili_talk^contrib_{10:02, 4 May 2008 (UTC)}

[edit] Democrat

I took out 2 refences to Wolfowitz being a Democrat, one in the info box (did not insert Republican in its place). They are both from the same source -

Nevertheless, the The Times observed in March 2005, in the context of discussing his suitability as president of the World Bank Group, that "he has not ceased being a registered Democrat."^[1]

Given the source, it's pretty bold of me to remove it. But I think the Times must have misunderstood US politics. PW has been associated with Republican administrations for almost 30 years and is considered a theoretician of the most right wing part of the Republicans. The Democrats wouldn't acknowledge him as one of their own. Maybe if there was another source, I'd accept it, but as of now at best it looks misleading. Even the Times can make a mistake. Smallbones (talk) 20:04, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cut down the world bank section

I have removed the paragraphs that praised him or loathed him. That info is really irrelevant. Virtually every political appointment has an op-ed praising or condemning them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.47.34.218 (talk) 19:56, 12 June 2008 (UTC)