Wikipedia:Peer review/Bring Us Together/archive1

Bring Us Together

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because… although it is rather short, I'm considering sending it to FAC, and I'm wondering if it's just too short to be appropriate there. Additional issue is the large photograph, which I am very proud of getting (it took a fair amount of detective work by me and a Nixon Library staff member) and which is big, but would be a shame to crop or reduce.

Thanks, Wehwalt (talk) 03:34, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Ruhrfisch comments: This is a really interesting and well done article (which I am not surprised by, given the quality of your other work I have seen). I was already somewhat familiar with the story, but think there are a few places where a bit more information could be added to flesh things out. Here are some suggestions for improvement.

• I love the large image of the float and Nixon in the reviewing stand and definitely think it should be kept in the article. I also like all of the images (kudos for finding the float image and for the road trip to beautiful Deshler, Ohio). However, I do not think any of the current images are a great lead image. I see there is already a cropped version showing just Cole and Nixon at File:Cropped Bring Us Together.jpg and think this would make a great lead image. It shows Cole and Nixon and a replica of the original sign, and I think using it as the lead image would help the reader find Nixon more easily in the large image later in the article (I had to look a little bit to be sure I'd found him). I have no problem with having the crop and the original both in the article.
• If for some reason the cropped image is not used as the lead photo, what about an image of Nixon, either on the day of his victory speech (if a free image is available) or from his inauguration day? As it is, Deshler is not mentioned in the lead (but should be), and then the lead image has only the cryptic caption "Deshler Elementary School (previously Deshler High and Grade School)" My guess is that most people read the lead or look at the images first, and having an image of Nixon's face as the lead would identify the article pretty quickly.
• I like the caption for the fire station as it relates it to the article nicley. I would try to do that for the school image, and the station image too - looking at Google Earth, the double tracks lead west, the single track in front of the station runnning left-right is the north-south track (right is north). The north-south track is the one which a train coming from Lima would have taken, so my guess is Nixon's train came in from the left on the tracks running across the image and departed to go north to Toledo by pulling out to the right.
• I also note that there was a news photo of Cole and her (redone) sign from the AP in several newspapers, such as this one after the election and before the inauguration. I have no idea if that would be justified as a fair use image (it may be the copyright was never renewed and it is free). If it could be used, this might be a good lead image.
• I see the upright parameter is used for the Deshler images - I think this makes them look too small, especially with the enormous float image in the article. Can they just be thumb sized?
• As mentioned with captions, I would include Deshler in the lead. I think I would probably include the day of the whistle stop tour in the lead too.
• I think the article could use some more background to better provide context to the reader. These are probably only a sentence or maybe two for each point, but I think they would help make the article comprehensive (a FAC criterion).
  • I would identify who Nixon's opponent was, and explain who LBJ was too (since he's in the quote). Otherwise someone not very familiar with the era might imagine Nixon was running against LBJ instead of his VP, HHH.
  • I would also give some background information on Nixon's campaign and the whistle stop tour that day. Campaigning by train was something of an anachronism even then, and there is a nice contemporary New York Times article from page 1, describing the whistle stop tour Nixon Intensifies Blows at Humphrey On Ohio Train Tour, R. W. Apple Jr., Oct 23, 1968. Again this could be two sentences - the article describes the distance covered, the number of cars and engines in the train, the number of people on board and stops made, even gives what Nixon's speech was about in Deshler (crime is bad).
  • The Safire entry has some nice material on how the slogan resonated in a time of civil strife and division, and I think it would be worth including a little bit on that. It also mentions how the Democrats thought to use a similar slogan early in the campaign and abandoned it, which be worth including. Again, to someone familiar with the story, this is clear, but it is over 40 years ago now and many people will be fuzzy on exactly what the social scene was like then.
  • I also think it could be made a bit clearer that Nixon was on the last car of the train when he spoke, facing the crowd from the train and somewhat above it, and that the ropes to hold the crowd back also let the train pull in safely.
  • I would say that Deshler is in northwest Ohio and perhaps give the distance to Toledo, as Joe the Plumber is also from northwest Ohio, specifically Holland, a suburb of Toledo. The Greene ref points out the geographical closeness of the two incidents.
  • I also think that I would call Bob Greene a columnist rather than a reporter - this may be just be because I do not like the man, but he is mostly known as a columnist and seems to do relatively little hard news reporting
  • When I looked to see if I could find a photo of the rally / whistle stop, I found the NYT article and the picture of Cole linked above. I also found that there were a few brief stories where her opinion on Nixon was reported afterwards. I think it might be worth while to include these somehow - not only did Nixon's opponents use the phrase against him, but reporters checked on this young woman's opinion every so often and published it.
    • December 3, 1969 - doing great so far (pay per view, did not read all of it)
    • May 12, 1970 story - still has faith in Nixon
    • July 17, 1972 story - invited to work in Nixon's 1972 campaign
    • January 17, 1973 story - not invited to second Nixon inauguration
    • August 9, 1974 - has no comment on Nixon now
• This is just an odd coincidence, but Truman made a whistle stop in Deshler in the 1948 campaign. Not sure it is worth including in the article, but thought you might like the tidbit - see here

Hope this helps. If my comments are useful, please consider peer reviewing an article, especially one at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog. I do not watch peer reviews, so if you have questions or comments, please contact me on my talk page. Yours, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 20:21, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I will work on these. Yes, I had been thinking a background/campaign section would be in order. I've found Cole's opinion as late as 1977, in the LA Times. I don't really want to focus on her, I want the focus to be on the slogan. She is a large part of it, of course (by the way, I am a little skeptical about her story, personally. Why did no one ever interview the classmate who laughed at the sign? Did she/he exist?). Nixon also visited Deshler in 1960, btw., he was very fond of these train tours (which he did in 1952 as well and possibly in other years). The reason Deshler was such a popular place to visit was because of the intersection of train lines. Excellent and well focused comments. I will probably not run this article at FAC until around November 1, as I am planning to go back to the Nixon Library in October and want to see if they have more clippings on this whole thing.--Wehwalt (talk) 20:30, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

If you keep only the current images, I would make the train station the lead image, as that is the most relevant of the Deshler images (IMO). I think a sentence or two on Cole's subsequent history would be useful - perhaps something like "After the inauguration, Cole was interviewed at least six time for her opinion on Nixon between 1969 and 1977. Although she was invited to work on Nixon's reelection campaign in 1972, she was not invited to his second inaugural." It seems like people did not question her story then, so they did not ask her alibi witness(es). If she was going to lie, I suppose she could have just said she wrote her own sign all along. The world may never know... Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 00:01, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

This looks great - I have two very minor nitpicks.

• In the lead the sentence The sign was seen by Nixon or a member of his staff, and, after the election, President-elect Nixon mentioned the sign and adopted the phrase "Bring Us Together" in his victory speech as representing his administration's initial goals. might be objected to in FAC as it seems to indicate Nixon only mentioned the sign after the election (when the article makes it clear that he did so before at Madison Square Garden about a week after the Deshler stop).
• I understand the Joe the Plumber sentence, but it is a bit long and a bit awkwrd and I stumble a little every time I read it. Could it be smoothed out somehow? Not sure if it needs to be split or not. Please let me know when this is at FAC, and thanks for teaching me a lot about a subject I only knew a little about. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 02:10, 17 September 2010 (UTC)