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Talmage Boston is ready for the next chapter of the U.S. presidency -- one way or the other.
The 63-year-old Dallas attorney, historian and author is already crafting his post-election questions for Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who will be speaking in Dallas the week after we've chosen our next commander in chief.
Woodward, best-known for uncovering the Watergate scandal, is coming to town for back-to-back events exactly one week after the votes are counted. Boston will interview the author of 18 best-selling books on American politics -- including a dozen that made it to the top spot -- about what happens next.
Both conversations are being held at the Belo Mansion downtown. The first one, on Nov. 15, will raise scholarship funds for the Dallas Bar Foundation. The next day it will be an event for the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth.
Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein, whose reporting of the Watergate case won them a Pulitzer Prize, sit in the newsroom of the Washington Post in Washington in 1973.
AP
"Woodward is on the short list of someone who can put some true perspective about what we've been through and what we can expect going forward," says Boston, who sits on the boards of both organizations. "Why did the election come out this way? How did these two distrusted people get to be the candidates? What does this tell us about the primary process? Does it need to be overhauled?
"This is history in real time."
Boston will draw on questioning techniques he's honed for nearly 40 years as a trial lawyer and in his latest book, Cross-Examining History: A Lawyer Gets Answers From the Experts About Our Presidents.
Good lawyers ask the best questions in the best way with the most informative results, he says.
As one of his book jacket endorsers puts it, Boston combines "the curiosity of Charlie Rose with the gravitas of Edward R. Murrow."
From Ken Burns to Henry Kissinger
The book, released in September, is based on 26 interviews with presidential historians such as Ken Burns and David McCullough and five White House insiders, including Henry Kissinger and James Baker. Boston crammed in 23 of these interviews in 10 months after he decided early last year that the presidency would be a juicy topic in an election year.
He just didn't realize how juicy.
Boston is crisscrossing the country giving speeches on how history grades the personality traits of great presidents.
Cross-Examining History: A Lawyer Gets Answers from the Experts about Our Presidents by Talmage Boston. Bright Sky Press 2016
"Yes, voters in 2016 are necessarily concerned with certain issues like the Supreme Court, as they should be," says Boston. "But what this book attempts to say is: 'Forget the issues. What's in the toolkit of the candidates that can be used that has the potential to make him or her a great leader and what is clearly missing from the toolkit that will cause real problems?' "
Boston describes himself as a moderate Republican" who's feeling demonized by extreme right-wingers. They've branded him a closet Democrat because he sees the need for common ground.
"Government is basically shooting itself with all the rancor, refusal to talk or compromise, name-calling and below-the-belt personal attacks," Boston says. "This is totally unacceptable."
Value of glad-handing
Thomas Jefferson was a master at friendly finesse.
His Federalist predecessor, John Adams enacted the Sedition Act, which could throw people in jail for speaking out against the president or his party. Jefferson, who thought this was a clear violation of freedom of speech, did not consider retaliatory legislation when he and his 
party took over.
Instead, he schmoozed with the enemy, hosting dinner parties throughout his administration where his only invited guests were Federalist leaders. Good food, wine and conversation soothed the savage disagreements, Boston says. "The icy polarization melted, and with constructive dialogue, compromises allowed two-party governance to function."
We can only hope.
Great presidents know their strengths, limitations
Great leaders are self-aware, Boston says. The best at this was James Madison, who surrounded himself with counterbalances. At 5-foot-4, 100-pound Madison got lost in a room. So he flanked himself with 6-foot-2 George Washington.
Madison was among the least charismatic and creative of the Founding Fathers, so he partnered with the dynamic Alexander Hamilton and creative genius Jefferson.
"But Jefferson needed Madison's level-headedness because T.J.'s creativity was often off the wall," Boston says.
When Boston goes into a courtroom, he's usually armed with a previous deposition to keep the witness from straying from the truth. When he interviews biographers, their books are their depositions.
There's also the famous trial lawyer's question: When did you stop beating your wife?
"That's what I call identifying the paradoxes. You've got Thomas Jefferson, 'All men are created equal,' but on the other hand, he owned hundreds of slaves and fathered children with Sally Hemmings. So you bring forward this paradox to make sense of this human being."
He asked J.E. Smith about Dwight Eisenhower's extramarital affair with Kay Summersby, which Boston sees as a wartime glitch for a president who was otherwise a pillar of integrity.
"This gets the bigger picture, 'Yes, we had many great presidents. But every single one of them had flaws and an Achilles' heel. Let's acknowledge that and say, despite it, he did a whole lot of great things to make America the country that it is. History lovers don't want to base their opinions on half-truths or wishful thinking, but on all the facts."
Twitter: @CherylHall_DMN