Wikipedia and the 2008 US elections/Manual of style for top pages

The "top pages" (that address a particular article) should have a consistent style and flow, in order to produce the most readable results. Substituted templates can be used to create a basic structure that can then be filled in and expanded upon.

Graphics
Most pages should have an infobox (Template:Wikipedia and the 2008 US elections-ibox), including:
 * 1) when the article was first created
 * 2) when the subject of the article first became notable in the context of the election
 * 3) a photo, if available and appropriate
 * 4) timeline graphic marking the period(s) when the subject of the article was notable
 * 5) total number of article and talk page edits from the beginning of the election until the inauguration
 * 6) how many times was the article protected, brought up on a noticeboard, AfDed, etc.

A more detailed timeline would also be good with edits by day, week, or month, sorted by:
 * 1) anon, user, and sysop
 * 2) content edits, minor edits (copyedits and so on), reverted edits, vandal edits, reverted vandal edits
 * 3) mark major campaign events on the timeline to see if there is any correlation between number of edits and news events

Basic questions

 * 1) was the article started as a stub? if so, how long did it take to lose the stub tag?
 * 2) did wikipedia have an article on the subject before the election? if so, compare the article before and after
 * 3) were daughter articles created? if so, when? were all of the daughter articles kept?
 * 4) what was the relationship between talk page edits and article edits?
 * 5) were there edit wars? if so, what were they about, and did they coincide with campaign events?
 * 6) was the article protected or placed under probation? if so, why and for how long?
 * 7) did the campaigns themselves edit the articles?
 * 8) was the article itself ever in the news?