Sitting U.S. presidents love to visit SF, but it doesn’t always go well
U.S. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy speaks to the audience during a campaign event at the Cow Palace in Daly City on Nov. 2, 1960. | OpenSFHistory | Source: OpenSFHistory
Democratic Presidential hopeful and current U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) speaks during a rally March 17, 2007, in Oakland. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
U.S. President Bill Clinton works the crowd on Powell Street near the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on April 15, 1992. | Deanne Fitzmaurice/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower waves from motorcade along Geneva Avenue on Aug. 23, 1956, while on his way to the Cow Palace for Republican National Convention. | Source: OpenSFHistory
People stand on the pedestal of a Benjamin Franklin statue in Washington Square in San Francisco during a speech by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson on Oct. 11, 1964. | OpenSFHstory
U.S. President Herbert Hoover waves his hat in recognition to the crowds surrounding his car in a parade on Aug. 26, 1928, in San Francisco. | American Stock/Getty Images
Families waiting to greet U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt on his drive through San Francisco during a presidential visit on July 14, 1938. | OpenSFHistory
U.S. President Gerald R. Ford on a bus with one of the first children evacuated from Vietnam during Operation Babylift at San Francisco Airport in South San Francisco on April 5, 1975. | David Hume Kennerly/Corbis via Getty Images
Following an massive earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989, U.S. President George Bush (center), Rep. Leon Panetta (center left), Santa Cruz Mayor Mardi Wormhoudt (center right) and other officials address the media while outside the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz on Friday, Oct. 21, 1989. | Dirck Halstead/Getty Images
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (far left) and other officials attend a Tree Planting event in San Jose on May 11, 1903. | George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson greets a crowd in North Beach in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 1964. | OpenSFHistory
U.S. President Ronald Reagan toast Queen Elizabeth ll during a banquet at the de Young Memorial Museum on March 3, 1983, in San Francisco. | Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
U.S. Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter (center right) with waves at a campaign rally in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco on Oct. 31, 1976, followed by California Gov. Jerry Brown (right). | Janet Fries/Getty Images
U.S. President William McKinley visits San Francisco, traveling along Van Ness Avenue near Washington Street passing the Ashe Mansion in May 1901. | OpenSFHistory
No president of the United States was born in San Francisco, but Warren G. Harding died here. One hundred years ago this August, the scandal-plagued Harding was on a tour of the West when he suffered a cardiac event in the Palace Hotel. Decades later, in September 1975, Sara Jane Moore fired two shots at Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel—a mere 17 days after another attempt on Ford’s life.
U.S. President Richard Nixon walks out onto the Lake Merritt station BART platform in Oakland after a short trip on the train on November 1972. | Larry Tiscornia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Not every president has a brush with the Grim Reaper when they visit the Bay Area, however. Richard Nixon took a ride on a brand-new BART. Ronald Reagan hosted a dinner for Queen Elizabeth II at the de Young Museum. Bill Clinton campaigned on a cable car. And while running for reelection in 2012, Barack Obama famously made a pit stop at Chinatown dim sum palace Great Eastern Restaurant, dashing in to get some takeout dumplings.
View their visits in pictures.
U.S. President Barack Obama carries out lunch during a surprise visit to Great Eastern Restaurant for dim sum in San Francisco's Chinatown on Feb. 16, 2012. | Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
