Talk:Patrick Leahy

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Patrick Leahy article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

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.

This page is about a politician who is running for office or has recently run for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some current political conflict or controversy. For that reason, this article is at increased risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.

Biography: Politics and Government

	Biography portal 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
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Low-importance).

Politics: American Low‑importance

	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
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by American politics task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

United States: Vermont Mid‑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
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Vermont portal This article is supported by WikiProject Vermont (assessed as Top-importance).

U.S. Congress High‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject U.S. Congress, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the United States Congress 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.U.S. CongressWikipedia:WikiProject U.S. CongressTemplate:WikiProject U.S. CongressU.S. Congress articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is about one (or many) person(s).

Infobox photo

As Leahy is out-of-office and is now considered a historical figure, we do not have to use a recent image of him. See, for example, Dianne Feinstein, where this topic was discussed on that talk page. I think his 2006 portrait ([1]) is more focused and has better composition compared to the 2021 portrait ([2]), which in my opinion has many distractions (particularly the bright background); when glancing at each image, the 2006 image immediately draws my eyes to his face, while my eye can't immediately focus on anything in the 2021 image, as the whole image is equally sharp (i.e. the background is equal focus to the foreground). Also worth noting that the two images are of equal resolution. Curbon7 (talk) 07:03, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Here are the photos under review:

c. 2006 (age 66)

c. 2009 (age 69)

c. 2021 (age 81)

I hope that this doesn't become a two-person debate - that isn't a suitable consensus in my view. I considered changing the portrait to the 2006 one after Leahy retired, because it was taken in his relative prime (when he was the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee). 65 is the age I usually use when sourcing audio files for elderly members of Congress, you see. In his latest portrait, Leahy's age is showing (his more prominent purr, head scars).

However, I never liked the look of the 2006 portrait because of the odd lighting and shadows, which made Leahy resemble a supervillain. I recall that Curbon7 WP:BOLD changed the lead image for Orrin Hatch (the prior one is from the same photo series as the 2006 Leahy) If no one minds tweaking that Leahy portrait so the lighting is softer, I'd be happy to endorse it.

I'll take a shot at tweaking it slightly, but my Photoshop skills are not flawless. Depending on how much changes, I'll have to upload a separate version on Wikimedia Commons per Overwrite rules. SuperWIKI (talk) 06:34, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

SuperWIKI, I think the current 2006 portrait is a scan of the original photograph; note the scratches and dust, which do not appear to be present in the original version of this one (c:File:Patrick Leahy.jpg). It is difficult to see because of the ungodly resolution, but the original seems to be more normal in terms of color/light. Curbon7 (talk) 08:16, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try to fix it, but if that's not possible, the 2021 image should stay in my opinion. SuperWIKI (talk) 08:54, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, I tried. It's better, but it still doesn't look normal. SuperWIKI (talk) 09:05, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Possible Vandalism

All of the pictures of Leahy seem to have an engrained smile on his face. I can't whether or not this is photoshop or that's just what he looks like.

Can someone please explain this to me. 162.221.219.102 (talk) 16:19, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's just his face. Curbon7 (talk) 23:16, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]