2015
Only four sitting presidents have visited all fifty states, beginning with Richard Nixon who managed the feat in just three years. Nearing the end of his second term, the clock was ticking for Barack Obama, who made it to South Dakota last week despite the fact that nearly seventy percent of state residents disapprove of his policies. The Washington Post reports:
Most in the crowd, which was now three or four people deep, were die-hard Republicans and had little love for this president. “I wonder if he’s a Christian sometimes,” said Kristi Maas, 47, who owns a small hair salon in town. Just the thought was “scary” to her, she said. “He wants to take prayer out of everything. . . . Isn’t this country supposed to be based on religion?” Heads nodded around her.
The president’s plane landed about 30 minutes late.
1880
By 1880, no sitting president had visited the west coast. With cross-country rail travel now a manageable endeavor, nineteenth president Rutherford B. Hayes couldn’t avoid the journey much longer, especially in an election year. He traveled to California for a celebration of the state’s thirtieth anniversary of statehood. The president was called upon to give a speech, though he seemed less than enthused about the day’s events. The New York Times printed the speech:
“I was told that my presence was especially desired today because there is to be a celebration of the admission of this great State into the Union. It occurred to me that instead of being called upon as a speaker I could expect to be entertained with something of the history of the State. I find, though, that I am expected to speak. It has been said that a man who does not have much regard for his ancestors will not be likely to leave much for posterity.
Though this state is rather young to talk of ancestors, yet I am glad to see it commemorating pioneers.”