OK, I have to say, after watching Mitt Romney on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, I am more open to his becoming president than I previously was.

Now, this doesn't mean I'm about to vote Republican or anything, but Romney raised his profile considerably (for me) when he told Jay "my sons just gave me a car as a present -- a 1962 Rambler American."

For context (for those of you who don't know me personally), here is the car I learned to drive on:

A not-so beautiful 1968 Rambler American. Man, if that car could talk....

Anyway, Romney's revelation should come as no real surprise, since his father, George Romney, the first head of the venerable American Motors Corporation (when Nash and Hudson merged in 1954), proud maker of the Rambler, the Rebel, the AMX, the Javelin, the 70's-era Jeep, and also (sadly enough) the Pacer and the Gremlin. George was governor of Michigan for three terms and also ran for president, it should be noted, as an anti-Vietnam-war Republican in 1968. Not an easy thing for a Republican to do back then, you have to admit.

Now, I realize that admitting I learned on a Rambler is going to date me (anyone who does not know what the term "three on the tree" or, for that matter, "non-synchromesh 1st gear," can just stop reading here), but hey, the car was an old beater by the time I was learning to drive at age 16. But what a quintessential American car! The U.S. answer to the VW bug! Every family that grew up middle-class or worse in the 1960s can tell stories of either a bug or a Rambler, that's how prevalent they were.

So I'm not saying I'd vote for Mitt, or that I agree with any of his stances on the issues (I don't, for the most part), or that I'm suggesting that anyone else decide their vote on such a trivial issue, or anything of that nature...

...all I'm really saying is:

Wouldn't it be cool to see a Rambler parked outside the White House?