When President Barack Obama leaves Air Force One at the Dane County airport and heads across the city Wednesday, he will be the first president to visit Madison while in office in 59 years.

President Harry S. Truman was the last occupant of the Oval Office to visit the city on May 14, 1950 - a visit that came only one month before the start of the Korean War.

"It's pretty cool," said former state Democratic Party chairman Joe Wineke. "I'm getting closer to retirement, and I wasn't born the last time a president came here."

Madison has been a frequent spot for visits by former Democratic presidents and candidates for that office in recent years. But their Republican counterparts have been less likely to campaign or visit the liberal city recently.

As a candidate, Obama came to the Kohl Center on Feb. 12, 2008, days before the state's Democratic presidential primary.

In the run-up to that 2008 primary, former president Bill Clinton came to the UW-Madison Stock Pavilion on Feb. 14 to campaign for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who campaigned herself at Monona Terrace on Feb. 18.

Bill Clinton also came to Wisconsin on Oct. 1, 1992, on his way to a successful campaign for his first of two

terms as president.

On Truman's May 1950 trip, a time of Cold War tensions, he visited Madison to give a "peace" address to a crowd at the UW-Madison Field House and a nationwide radio audience.

"No one nation can bring about peace," Truman told listeners at the Field House.

Just weeks later on June 25, 1950, hostilities began between North and South Korea, pulling the United States into that bloody conflict.

Prior to Truman's visit, the Wisconsin State Journal published in advance a front-page map showing the route of the president's motorcade through the city, along with the times it was expected to pass. The route chosen by President Obama's security-conscious handlers is not being disclosed to the public, according to Madison police.

In other presidential visits, Grover Cleveland was entertained at the Diemer Cottage on the shores of Lake Mendota. President Theodore Roosevelt came to Madison several times, including once in 1903 while he was in office.