Visits, speeches and more

Central New Yorkers have had the chance to see presidents through the decades, and not just on the campaign trail.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson delivered his 'Gulf of Tonkin' speech at the dedication of SU's first Newhouse Journalism School building, setting policy for our greater involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1980, First Lady Rosalynn Carter visited Syracuse, and spoke at the Northeast Community Center.  Her husband lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan, whose wife Nancy visited Syracuse in August 1984, followed by the President's visit to IBM  in Endicott in September.

But perhaps the most frequent Central New York visitors, at least in recent years, are the Clintons, who summered in Skaneateles starting in 1999.  Area residents watched the President play golf with area Democrats, and both Clintons have become State Fair fans.  He did not attend in 2004, after undergoing heart bypass surgery, but it's an annual visit that Senator Clinton continued through 2008.

And, now-Vice President Joe Biden has perhaps the strongest ties of all: an SU Law School graduate who lived on Syracuse's Stinard Street in the 1960s.  He and his first wife also lived in Skaneateles--near her parents--before she and their 18-month old daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972.  Biden was a senator-elect at the time, and considered not taking the oath, in order to take care of his two young sons.  Biden also has a connection to Jimmy Carter's campaign, being one of the first to endorse his 1976 run, and becoming a key figure in the first Carter campaign.