Category talk:Candidates in the 2008 United States presidential election

Standards for inclusion

Who/what should be included in this category? Every person who considered/explored/declined/declared/ran/won/lost? The candidate's article or the article about the candidacy (see, e.g.,, Hillary Rodham Clinton vs. Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, 2008).—Markles 11:37, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

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• I think ultimately, that each presidential year should have a category, at least going forward, and for some of the last 20-odd years too, and listings of individuals in the general category (without a year) should be pushed into the sub categories, freeing up the category without a year to hold primarily sub-categories, and historical candidates earlier than say 1980 or so. I would prefer to relieve the navigation templates (present and future) by allowing and encouraging all of the varieties of candidates, drop-out, minor, perhaps even "potential" or "draft' be in the category for the particular election year, but I have not persuaded one editor for the 2008 template that that is a valid exercise.

• I suggest the biography be the listed article on the category, as that is the person who is the candidate. The campaign articles are more about an organization led by a person. The biography should have appropriate links if there is a campaign article.

• For 2008, the navigation template holds (for those who have an article) all who have registered with the Federal Elections Commission, and drop-out candidates that never came close to the party nomination. I am in apparent minority that minor candidates should not be on the navigation template: those among the 200-odd that have registered for with the FEC for 2008, most of whom who do not pass the threshold for required registration, $5,000 of activity, let alone the $50,000 threshold of activity (about 25 right now) for requirement to conduct electonic filing with the FEC.

The navigation template does include drop-out candidates (so far, major party candidates, I believe), which is sensible to me.

For background on discussions and navigation template guidelines, such as they are, for the 2008 navigation template, see:

• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election, 2008/Archive_1#Proposed Deletion of category "Exploratory" and "Declared" for individuals filing with FEC
• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election, 2008/Archive_1#Lesser-known Unknown candidates
• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election, 2008#FEC filing standards
• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election, 2008#colbert
• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election,_2008#Steve Adams
• Template_talk:United_States_presidential_election, 2008#Differentiate between nationwide and local candidates

--Yellowdesk (talk) 14:51, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

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