John Kennedy

Gwethalyn Phillips, a delegate for Barack Obama, said she was reminded of why she got into politics when she saw Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) address the Democratic National Convention last night.

“I remember when John Kennedy decided to put us on the moon, and challenged Americans to do that,” Phillips said. “Ted Kennedy brought a lot of that back to us last night.”

Of Michelle Obama’s speech, Phillips said that she was “so human, and so incredible.”

Phillips got into politics during the 1960s women’s movement and protesting the Vietnam War.

CAMP HILL -- John Kennedy, like with most subjects, has a strong opinion about the presidential election. The former state lawmaker thinks the country needs to relearn self-sacrifice for the benefit of society, and U.S. John McCain's time in a North Vietnamese prison camp proves he understands this principle, he said.

"So my choice was this," Kennedy said in his Camp Hill home, reclining in a plush couch next to a stack of Wall Street Journals. "Either I can get out an work for McCain, or I can send a check for McCain."

Neither satisfied, so he chose option C. Instead of lending his wealth to McCain, he decided -- with help from Web-savvy GOP strategist Jeff Coleman --  to use that money to create a Web site with his own blog -- John Kennedy's American Whistestop.

State Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) with a framed photograph of his father, Thomas J. Kean, and JFK. 

ASBURY PARK - As the son of a WWII infantryman who also served in the Korean War, state Sen. Sean Kean (D-Monmouth) found himself drawn to the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

"You know more about a guy because of what he’s able to endure," said Kean, a member of the McCain Campaign’s New Jersey steering committee.

When McCain’s most senior supporters in the state talk about going after "Reagan Democrats," they’re describing voters with backgrounds not dissimilar from Kean’s.

Who is the last Democrat to willingly leave the governor’s office?