It's a pitch black winter night and I'm walking outside along the gravel paths that mount

Vernon, George Washington's old home in Virginia.

There's a candlelight tour going on here so everything's dark, except for a few fire pits

and lanterns that are popping and crackling and there are reenactors and visitors who

are standing around them singing.

There's also just this beautiful icy white moon in the sky that's lighting up the Potomac

River below.

I actually work only about 15 miles from here in a very different environment.

The newsroom of the Washington Post.

I'm Lillian Cunningham and I'm the editor of a section here called on leadership.

I mostly interview current leaders in business and government but I had the idea that

especially in this election year it would be really fascinating to study at more on

presidential leadership in particular.

Like the skills and the circumstances that have made certain presidents effective or ineffective

and whether the type of leadership traits required to do the job well have changed significantly

over the years.

That's when I started confronting the fact that there are a lot of presidents I really

know nothing about.

I thought I knew something about it.

Well in closer look most of what I knew were just their very major successes or failures.

The soundbites that have become famous.

Just the funny little myths that have somehow been lodged in our collective memory like

...