Talk:Steve Schmidt

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles

Politics

	Politics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Conservatism Low‑importance

	Conservatism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Conservatism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of conservatism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ConservatismWikipedia:WikiProject ConservatismTemplate:WikiProject ConservatismConservatism articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tip: Anchors are case-sensitive in most browsers.

This article links to one or more target anchors that no longer exist.

[[Howard Schultz#Potential 2020 presidential campaign|2020 presidential candidate Howard Schultz]] The anchor (#Potential 2020 presidential campaign) has been deleted by other users before.

Please help fix the broken anchors. You can remove this template after fixing the problems. | Reporting errors

Verizon connection

Just a minor point: how is it possible that his father worked for Verizon when Schmidt was growing up, when Verizon didn't exist pre-2000? --160.94.142.71 (talk) 18:17, 30 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Scherer remark edit

The following edit was recently made to the article. As far as I can see, it is a derogatory remark about Schmidt, provided without suitable context or any semblance of balance, and thus a violation of neutral point of view policy. I have reproduced it below for everybody's viewing. RayAYang (talk) 20:56, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Time's Michael Scherer, in an opinion piece from September 15, 2008 relating to Schmidt's involvement with John McCain's presidential campaign dubbed Schmidt the "lord of outrage".^[1]

I suggest you reread WP:ASF. The source itself does not need to be neutral. Indeed, as a general rule we do not assume that all but the most authoritative sources are anywhere near neutral or comprehensive. It is our simple, straightforward and truthful representation of what the sources say that makes the article neutral. The only potential issue with the above material (i.e. the entire sentence I added and you removed) is if you argue that it adds undue weight to the article. To which I'd respond that Schmidt's senior position in the McCain campaign is of high relevance in this article and the according coverage he receives in high-profile news outlets is most certainly worthy of inclusion. However, I agree that the relatively bare sentence is not particularly useful. But the way to go about it is not to remove it but instead to expand on his work with the campaign. And if the majority of media response to his contributions is negative, we will neutrally report just that, and not clean up his article and "free it" from easily verifiable "derogatory remarks". Several available sources clearly attribute the change of the campaign's overall tone with Schmidt taking over the campaign as Operative Chief. The deliberate employment of untruthful statements, which has been noted as a trademark of Schmidt's campaign work in 2004 as well, has drawn increasing criticism even from some Republicans and conservative commentators. All of that is verifiable, relevant to the article about Schmidt, and it should be included. Everyme 23:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for agreeing that the bare sentence is not helpful. You have offered no useful reply to my charge that the bare sentence, as it is, is a biased contextless derogatory remark on a biography of a living person. Violations include, but are not limited to, WP:BLP and WP:NPOV, as well as basic questions of style and taste. You have asserted a "fact" in a most unhelpful manner.

If you wish to contribute constructively to this article in a helpful manner, you are welcome to write about the change in the McCain campaign following Steve Schmidt's takeover; I have been a little too busy of late to expand on this article as I had originally hoped.

However, we are now at the WP:3RR threshold. Please have the decency to either remove or expand on your edit; if this is not settled soon, I will take this to the BLP noticeboard. RayAYang (talk) 00:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can only presume you are deliberately ignoring the extensive point I've made explaining how the sentence is not a derogatory remark. In addition to brushing up on actual BLP violations, I also strongly recommend rereading WP:OWN. And the lawyering tone is not exactly helping your cause. Everyme 00:52, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) I've just stumbled onto this article (and for the record, I have no idea who this guy is - in fact he's from a completely different country), but it is clear that this is not a violation of the biographies of living persons policy or the neutral point of view policy. The point of WP:BLP is to avoid slandering a subject, or invading their privacy - not to prevent any negative coverage (otherwise this would not be an encyclopaedia, but an advertisement). Given that this comment has come from a reputable publication, is well sourced as well as qualifying it as an "opinion piece", there is no reason to remove this piece, from my perspective. :) – Toon ^(talk) 00:55, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Third opinion

This is a tough one. The negative-ness is not an issue. To quote from WP:BLP If an allegation or incident is notable, relevant, and well-documented by reliable published sources, it belongs in the article — even if it's negative and the subject dislikes all mention of it. Clearly, the allegations are from notable and well-documented reliable sources. Are they relevant though? Ideally, relevance should be obvious from the context and it is true that the quotes are not set in an appropriate context. Ideally, the article should describe his campaign style and then provide the quotations as support, provided the act of contextualizing does not wander into WP:OR. That said, the article is about a notable person much in the news these days and, given the stubbiness of the article itself, the quotations are informative and do provide a service to the reader (WP:RF). A context would be nice but, on the balance, the Scherer quotation can be kept. --Regents Park (count the magpies) 14:05, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Scherer, Michael (Sep. 15, 2008). "McCain's Outraged and Outrageous Campaign". Time.com. Retrieved 2008-09-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

more worthwhile sources

Marinucci, Carla (February 12, 2006). "Governor's team adds former Rove protege". sfgate.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

Lowe, Laurence (July 31, 2008). "The Post-Rove Guru". tnr.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

Spillius, Alex (02 Aug 2008). "John McCain's 'bullet' leads the assault on Barack Obama". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Harris, Paul (Aug 04, 2008). "McCain deploys The Bullet". nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Romano, Lois (August 21, 2008). "The Silver Bullet". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

Everyme 07:03, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sexual behavior

I don't think it's necessary to include Schmidt's past sexual behaviors. What a man does in the privacy of his bedroom or bathhouse is private. Talking about it is just an effort to attack his pro-homosexual agenda. 68.0.119.139 (talk) 02:54, 18 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Stevie Boy's Family

In Game Change, it references Stevie Boy's wife. Was that made up bollox by the filmmakers? If not, you people need something in the wiki about this guy's old lady, etc... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.14.36.165 (talk) 13:53, 12 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mercury Public Affairs

Is there really no wikipedia entry for Mercury Public Affairs? Are there entries for other political consulting firms? Get with it. We need to know who these people are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.74.83.15 (talk) 21:50, 18 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Steve Schmidt. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120303100712/http://courts.ky.gov/supremecourt/justices/scott.htm to http://courts.ky.gov/supremecourt/justices/scott.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 08:30, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Photo problem

Two different accounts have added the same photo using different file names, each having claimed it as their "own work". This means that either the two accounts are the same person (and it's a violation of Wikipedia rules to do that to appear to be multiple editors on the same article) or (at least) one of them is lying about its being their own work, or it's the oddest of beasts, a cooperative photograph. I am undoing the addition and asking that the images be removed since we cannot tell which, if either, claim is correct. Additionally, this new photo is not as good as the prior photo, which showed him larger, more clearly, and looking less lost. --Nat Gertler (talk) 23:40, 13 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Footnote 47

The link for Footnote 47 needs to be fixed. It currently takes you to a 404 error, indicating that the link does not exist. I found the correct link, but I do t trust myself to edit the link. If someone can help with this, the link is:

https://www.newsweek.com/david-frum-hbos-game-change-charts-sarah-palins-revenge-63687

Kdpeffley (talk) 02:51, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrality notice

An NPOV notice was added by User:Moncrief last month. Can someone explain why the article still has this notice or provide any sort of justification for it? Nweil (talk) 18:58, 8 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Political Affiliation

The article suggests that Schmidt is a member of the far-right Independent American Party, but this is clearly not true: Schmidt has made it clear he is a Democrat, and when asked why he's listed as a member of the IAP, he has said he has no idea how that happened.

The answer is obvious: voters who wish to change their political affiliation to "Independent" (as Schmidt did during his transition from Republican to Democrat) sometimes mistakenly select the party with "Independent" in its name. Many voters have made this mistake, as has been previously documented. The New York Post (which to my mind is an unreliable tabloid) wants to make it look like Schmidt is lying about his political affiliation, but that's a disingenuous take: the label is clearly an error.

Based on these considerations, I am going to modify this section to reflect the fact that Schmidt has refuted the insinuation that he is a member of the IAP. Chillowack (talk) 23:32, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Lincoln Project

I just saw a post about how Forest Gump enlisted for the Vietnam War. Then Secretary McNamara had setup Project 100,000. We need to let people know what requirements are to become a Congress person? Are there any after George Santos lied about everything? 107.182.38.133 (talk) 05:35, 25 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Schmidt's sister's partner's sexuality

@B: in this edit, you inserted a claim that Schmidt's sister's lifepartner is lesbian.That's not actually in the source. (Heck, we don't even have an actual statement that said partner is female, although it's strongly implied.) There is reasonable chance that the partner is bisexual rather than lesbian. I think the sourced information would be carried fine by referring to his sister, rather than her partner, as lesbian, which is sourced. I ask that you consider this and rework your edit as appropriate. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 14:36, 28 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Scherer, Michael (Sep. 15, 2008). "McCain's Outraged and Outrageous Campaign". Time.com. Retrieved 2008-09-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[1]