Key to a candidate's soul might be in the ignition

[babylonsister]

Key to a candidate's soul might be in the ignition
By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Friday, November 2, 2007


MANCHESTER, N.H. — It makes so much sense for Mitt Romney to drive a '62 Rambler.

It was the ultimate second car of baby-boomer suburban families in that era. It was the car that his father, the former chairman of Rambler-maker American Motors, made famous. And it seemed like just the right gift for the presidential candidate's 60th birthday when Romney's sons got him the black convertible back in March.

"I came home from church and my sons handed me a key," he recalled. "I went out in the driveway and there was a 1962 Rambler. I started the car up," Romney said, "drive it back and forth, and then pushed it back home."

There's a broader lesson here: If you want to know what a presidential candidate is really like, you might want to ask him about his wheels.

Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. still has the 1967 Corvette that his father gave him as a wedding gift when Biden married his first wife, Neilia. She died in an automobile crash in 1972.

Underdog Dennis Kucinich gets around in a Ford Focus compact. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the only Democratic presidential contender from the West, has a Jeep Wrangler.

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