three men were giants in their period, but the nation rejected them and took people with names like phil moore and tyler and names that were not as prominent in the period. it was like the country didn't want strong leadership in that era. andrew jackson being the exception to that. >> and your book is about henry clay's family. what role did they play in his political life? >> well, one of the reasons i became interested in the study was because historians imply, sometimes state openly, that his family was a burden to him, that they restricted his ability to become president, and i did a biography of a great granddaughter who was a poet, and in the process of that, i began to see a different picture. clay worked as hard at providing for his family and setting his sons up in business as he worked at holding the union together, and simultaneously. a lot of people suggest, for example, that his wife was a burden, that she did not like washington. glenn says washington was not a very popular place for the family because of her. well, what i discovered was she went to washington with him regularly