The first time I saw a Gran Turismo Omologato was in Hubie Jones’s body repair shop.

It didn’t need any work since it was brand new; everyone just wanted to look at it more closely. I walked up to the open hood and saw a 389 cubic inch engine with tri-power carbs, and, inside the car, a four-speed manual transmission. It gave me goose bumps.

This was the 1964 Pontiac GTO. The design people at Pontiac were geniuses. They took a Pontiac Tempest, put in an engine from a full-size Catalina, picked a great name and the car could go directly from the showroom to the drag strip and win. As cars went, it was no dog. That was back in the days when Americans got things done in a hurry.

In a hurry is not how I would describe the way the Obamas chose a new dog. Man, am I happy they finally selected one. I think the president has been trying to find one since mid-January. He had promised his girls a dog when they moved to the White House. I made a similar promise to my kids when I moved them to Kansas. Everyone at my house loaded up in the station wagon and we headed to the dog pound. The president must be one lucky guy, as I didn’t see any house-broken dogs at the pound I visited.

Once my kids each picked out a puppy, everyone was happy, especially the dogs. I think Obama should have followed his campaign promise of getting a pound dog and taken care of picking it up quicker than a GTO does a quarter-mile. To me, that would have sent a much better message to the public about caring for the over population of dogs than did his donation of cash made to the D.C. animal shelter.

The government has killed the Pontiac brand at General Motors Corp. The group the president assembled to tell Detroit how to run the auto business said this brand must go or they won’t give GM any more help.

None of these people in the select group has ever been in the auto business and none of them even drives an American car. My bet is that not one of them has ever changed oil in any car and thinks the spare tire is the AAA number on their speed dial.

An American icon is dead; I wonder who is next on Washington's “we know what is best for you” chopping block. We'll find out, but it may take a while.

After all, it took almost three months for Obama to pick out a dog. He said it was more difficult than picking a commerce secretary.

I’ll let you decide if the dog decision should rank higher than (1) what’s going on in our economy (2) the people that build cabinets (3) those auto workers at Pontiac.

My kids picked out five dogs in less than 30 minutes. The country — and Pontiac — might be in better shape if they picked out commerce secretaries, too.

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Kansas Liberty columnist Bill Wyckoff is president of Labette Bank, a community bank with locations throughout southeast Kansas, and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News. He lives on a farm outside Altamont, Kan. A graduate of Kansas State University with an MBA from Southern Illinois University, he enjoys collecting antique John Deere tractors and driving his hemi orange Dodge Challenger. Email bwyckoff@labettebank.com

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