"I do solemnly swear..."

The idea is a relatively simple one; in 42 months, we'll perform a ritual. Fast food restuarants will offer a free chicken sandwich or donut when you come in with your "I Voted" sticker. A phalanx of senior citizens will look up your name in their books. You'll stand in a booth and mark a bubble, or punch a hole, or (god forbid) use a touchscreen, and you'll cast your vote for somebody--Barack Obama or his opponent--to be president.

Forty-three men have been president in the 233 years of the United States; some good, some bad, some forgettable. One was president for 13 years. One was president for 32 days. They've ranged between 5'4" and 6'4". One weighed 332 pounds. They've all been men, and until this year, they had all been white men.

So let's do some Old School History here. Let's dig into the Lives of Great Men and see what we can learn about them, and about the office, and about the country they ran. Let's see who made it better, who made it worse, and who just watered the plants for four years.

Here's the plan: one biography a month, with the occasional doubling up to keep on schedule. We start with the guy on the dollar bill and we end on the guy in the Oval Office. Along the way, we learn a little about how history's written and how biographies change. Read along!