West Virginians and other Appalachians remember Ethel and Bobby with fondness. (AND THEY VOTE)

[CorpGovActivist]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&safe=off&q=ethel+kennedy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn">What awe-inspiring news.

Both my grandfathers took the day off from mining and traveled to hear Kennedy speak. Both were skeptical. Both voted for him, in the all-important 1960 primary (helping to confound the pundits), and again in the general. When RFK came back to their county, they worked hard to support him. The news of his death was like a death in the family. Pictures of "those nice Kennedy boys" and FDR hung in their houses, and my great-grandmother's in Pike County, Kentucky.

What JFK and RFK did for Appalachia (including keeping their word by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Regional_Commission">establishing the Appalachian Regional Commission and working to keep its funding from being cut) has not been forgotten.

Pictures and videotape of JFK and RFK in WV: priceless. Throw in the ones of Rose, Ethel, and the other spouses mixing and mingling with mountaineering miners? Platinum priceless.

With all due respect for the judgment of RFK's children: she knew him best, and her words will be taken heavily into account in these vital swing states - both in the primary, and again in the general. That debt is not quite repaid yet, and we tend to be loyal. Fault us, but we are.

- Dave

[CorpGovActivist]

1. For the edification, education, and benefit ...

... of party "strategists" who write off the fly-over areas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyb9R_TL8M">JFK in WV, addressing tough questions forthrightly.

- Dave

[CorpGovActivist]

2. In front of the Caroline: Kanawha, Kanawha, Kanawha.

http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/kennedy.html">That's my old workplace in the background of this article's picture.

[CorpGovActivist]

3. This one gets me in the gut.

One of those men could've been one of my grandfathers.