Attracting presidents, wanna-be's

If it's September or October in a presidential election year, chances are someone who is in, was in or wants to be in the White House will visit Cape Girardeau. Since 1976, either presidents, vice presidents or the opposition party challengers have swung through Southeast Missouri on the stump trail.

In all, three sitting presidents have visited Cape Girardeau, and another seven came to town either before or after serving in the White House.

Those in office

The sitting presidents who visited Cape Girardeau each used different means of transport. William Howard Taft arrived by boat, Ronald Reagan by airplane, and Bill Clinton arrived by plane but left by bus.

Residents had to get up early to see Taft, who was traveling on the Mississippi River for an inspection tour. According to the report in the Cape Girardeau Daily Republican newspaper, residents were awakened by phone calls at 4 a.m. on Oct. 26, 1909, so they wouldn't sleep through the president's arrival.

When Taft stepped ashore at 6 a.m., a motorcade of automobiles and trolley cars took the president and his retinue to Academic Hall, where he spoke for about 20 minutes. The newspaper did not record most of his comments, except to say that Taft would remember his visit to Cape Girardeau for two reasons -- he came ashore with someone larger than himself (Taft topped 300 pounds) and that he saw the sun rise.

The late President Ronald Reagan arrived in Cape Girardeau Sept. 14, 1988. Disembarking Air Force One with Reagan were the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau, front right; former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, rear left; and U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, rear right.

Seventy-nine years later, Ronald Reagan arrived at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in Air Force One.

Reagan's motorcade -- 25 cars, no trolley cars -- began at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport and ended at the Show Me Center, where he spoke to more than 7,000 people Sept. 14, 1988. In his 25-minute address, the 40th president spelled out the differences between Vice President George H.W. Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, both candidates for president that election year.

In the middle of their campaign for a second term and the day after the closing of the Democratic National Convention, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, along with their wives, visited Cape Girardeau on Aug. 31, 1996. They arrived on Air Force One but were using Cape Girardeau as the starting point for a two-day, four-state bus tour.

Speaking at Capaha Park, President Clinton told about 30,000 people that he was seeking re-election so he could "build a bridge to the 21st century."

Clinton spoke only for about 10 minutes but spent about 25 minutes shaking hands.

Gore, who introduced the president, said the Republican nominee, Bob Dole, was a "bridge to the past."

"Under Bill Clinton, we have an America that's not just better off, but better," Gore told the crowd.

A little more than two months after the Clinton-Gore visit and just a few days before voters went to the polls, Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp spoke at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson.

Before and after

Seven presidents visited the city either before they were elected -- sometimes long before they even entertained thoughts of becoming president -- or after their term in the White House was over.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was in Cape Girardeau briefly in the early days of the Civil War. He set up headquarters aboard a boat at Cape Girardeau while he lived ashore. Stories vary on where he spent his time ashore. He later was president from 1869 to 1877.

Twelve years before he was elected president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau in his 1920 campaign for vice president as the running mate of James M. Cox.

Roosevelt criticized Sen. Warren G. Harding, the Republican candidate for president and ultimately the winner of the election. Harding "openly acknowledged he had no foreign policy but that if he should be elected he would try to study up some sort of program," Roosevelt said.

The last of Roosevelt's three vice presidents, Harry Truman, visited Cape Girardeau on several occasions before and after he was president, though not during his term.

Near the end of Truman's term, U.S. Sen. Richard Nixon called him "one of the worst presidents we ever had" in a speech at Houck Field House on Oct. 20, 1952.

While campaigning for the vice-presidential spot on Dwight Eisenhower's Republican ticket, Nixon was greeted by about 4,000 people. His speech reflected the Cold War, touching on nuclear weapons, the Korean War, the attitude of the Soviets, the Alger Hiss spy case and communism.

"Can we have another man that says Stalin is 'good old Joe'?" Nixon asked. "We need a man who can recognize a communist when he sees one."

The current vice president, Dick Cheney, has been to Cape Girardeau twice, in 2000 and 2002. His running mate appeared early in the campaign, in August 1999, before Cheney was the vice-presidential candidate. Then governor of Texas George W. Bush met privately with conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh; Limbaugh's brother, David, a lawyer and political columnist; and the two men's mother, Millie.

The following day, Bush visited a grain-bagging plant at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port and then attended a fund raiser at the home of Dr. Charles Cozean.

Presidential hopefuls

Cape Girardeau also has had its share of those who ran but never won the office they sought.

Perhaps the most recognizable such candidate was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who spoke at the Town Plaza on April 25, 1968. The crowd, estimated at between 5,000 and 6,000, was made up largely of college students who were so enthusiastic they nearly knocked Kennedy off his feet as he tried to make his way to a reception after his speech. He was campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president.

Forty-one days later, he was shot to death by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles.

Visiting Cape

• President William Howard Taft, Oct. 26, 1909
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, Oct. 1, 1920
• U.S. Sen. Harry S. Truman, Oct. 22, 1940
• U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft, April 26, 1952
• U.S. Sen. Richard M. Nixon, Oct. 21, 1952
• Vice President Alben Barkley, Oct. 28, 1952
• U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, April 25, 1968
• Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, Sept. 18, 1968
• Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew, Oct. 3, 1968
• U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, Oct. 18, 1976, and March 7, 1988
• Former President Gerald Ford, Sept. 15-16, 1980
• Vice President Walter Mondale, Nov. 1, 1980
• Vice President George Bush, Oct. 22, 1984
• U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, Sept. 17, 1987
• President Ronald Reagan, Sept. 14, 1988
• U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Oct. 24, 1988
• U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, Oct. 31, 1988
• Vice President Dan Quayle, Oct. 2, 1992
• President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Aug. 30, 1996
• Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Aug. 11-12, 1999
• Dick Cheney, Sept. 21, 2000, and Oct. 31, 2002
• Sen. John Edwards, Aug. 4-5, 2004

-- Sharon Sanders