Did you know that many of our most iconic commanders-in-chief were also hopeless romantics? In the presidential archives, love letters abound. From...

Since President George Washington's first ever inauguration in 1789, the location, date and celebration of the event has transformed. Obama's first...

Until recently, a history of pardons granted by every occupant of the Oval Office reveals that each president understood that a pardon was an established response from a compassionate country towards those Americans who had strayed off course and deserved a second chance.

A highly polarized country. A savagely partisan Congress. A brutal presidential race, which ended with the Democratic incumbent defeating his Republican challenger, an ex-businessman. This was America in 1940 and early 1941.

The 2012 election resembled Harry Truman's come-from-behind "Give `em Hell" campaign of 1948. That year, too, Republicans could almost taste victory. But Truman was a scrapper. He didn't mind winning ugly.

Using historical data, we can identify what experience is most important in hiring a new president. While there are no perfectly objective ways to measure presidential quality, it is fair to say that historians' estimates will certainly succeed at separating the George Washingtons from the Franklin Pierces.

Only 19 U.S. presidents have been elected to a second term. Out of those, only seven avoided a troubled or failed second term. Should this second-term curse enter into the decision to vote for Barack Obama?

The important truth is that a significant minority is almost always going to hate whomever is president. And before we get nostalgic, it happened to Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR, too.

I did some checking and yes, the federal government under Barack Obama's watch has spent a whole bunch of money. That much I'll concede. What I won't concede is that it has spent too much.

Simply put, the LBJ I knew hungered for power, and knew he knew how to use it. The Kennedy I knew grudgingly but genuinely admired LBJ's ability. Robert Caro's book reminded me of a sad conversation I had with LBJ during the time he was languishing in the vice presidency.

Whatever your political affiliation, this election season will be both virtual and geographic ground zero for making one's voice heard. The objective as always will be to make the message attract as much media and Internet attention as possible.

Even as we nod in agreement when the President says "We can't wait," we will find it necessary to think about how a future, less benign, president will say the same thing to support reconstitution of the imperial presidency.

Imagine giving our Founding Fathers, some of the most learned and intelligent men in history, a tool like Twitter. Would humility win the day or would the draw of casting immediate stones outweigh etiquette?

Our minds -- and those of politicians -- feed on overconfidence. We want to believe not only the promise but that the person who made it can deliver. A recent book by Nobel-winning economist/psychologist Daniel Kahneman helps explain this.

It was Winston Churchill who first used that term, "the crunch," in that way. It means, of course, that crisis when a leader has to make a judgment. It is when lives, perhaps millions of them, hang on the outcome of the decision the leader makes.

America is better when it has two strong political parties that balance the extremes. But over the last generation, the Republican Party has indulged its extremes in an effort to secure votes and lost its bearings. All Americans -- not just Republicans -- are the lesser for it.

With the assassination of JFK, the resignation of Nixon, the near-assassination of Reagan and the impeachment of Clinton, the question of presidential "succession" looms larger than ever. And as a result, voters and the national media are scrutinizing VP qualifications like never before.

While religious freedom sometimes permits a role for religion in politics, other times it requires the opposite, a lawmaking process based in secular justifications, without formal church involvement.

What could be clearer than "the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion?"

If we think the products of past brokered conventions were good for America, good for good for the conservative cause, or even good for the Republican Party, we should think again. A brokered convention could only leave us all, well, broker.

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul all have reasons to not drop out. With each passing primary, there's a chance the Republican nominee will have to deal with the fallout from the first brokered convention since primaries and caucuses became the critical method of choosing nominees.

This time the conventional wisdom may turn out to be wrong, and the independent candidacies the Americans Elect online delegates select might win.

From Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, each commander-in-chief has made lasting accomplishments that warrant our collective praise.