Sept. 02--REPORTING FROM ANCHORAGE -- For a state used to the briefest of presidential stopovers, President Obama's extended visit to Alaska this week has been an opportunity to savor.
Yes, it's a red state governed just years ago by conservative sensation Sarah Palin -- but seemingly everywhere Obama has gone, he's been greeted by at least some of the populace swooning at the presidential attention.
"Honk once if Obama" read one sign along the presidential motorcade route Tuesday. "President Obama drinks free," read another outside Espresso Simpatico coffee shop near Seward.
In the past, presidents have come to Alaska to fly-fish or meet with visiting heads of state, welcome a pope or rally American troops. More often, though, it's been simply to refuel Air Force One on the way to or from a far-flung destination.
But on Wednesday, the final day of a climate-change-focused three-day visit, Obama will make history by becoming the first commander in chief to head north of the Arctic Circle in the U.S.
"We're excited to have a president come up and it's actually a destination, it's not just a low-on-fuel stop," Gov. Bill Walker told reporters as he traveled back to his state with the president aboard Air Force One on Monday, adding that it was great Obama could "get out and touch Alaska, be part of it."
Walker said that during their time together on Air Force One, he talked with the president about previous presidential visits. There was Jimmy Carter's fishing trip and the time Ronald Reagan stayed over at then-Sen. Frank Murkowski's Fairbanks home, only to have the hot water run out.
William McKinley's presence in Alaska was in name only, as the inspiration for the designation of the state's tallest peak, until Obama announced over the weekend that it would be renamed Denali. Warren Harding was the first president to visit Alaska during its days as a territory, stopping at the governor's home just weeks before he died.
"I didn't bring that one up," Walker said.
In some ways it's fitting that a president born in Hawaii is making some history in Alaska. The country's two youngest and non-contiguous states have often partnered in Congress, even with delegations from alternate sides of the aisle, to fight for their mutual interests.
Obama's interest also is personal. As he's struggled to break out of the presidential bubble in recent years, it's inspired a joke -- "the bear is loose" -- among his staff and the press corps.
So there Obama was Tuesday, boating past the Bear Glacier after hiking with survivalist reality TV star Bear Grylls. "When I'm not president, you'll find me over there in that cabin," he told reporters while riding through Resurrection Bay.
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