(AOL Autos) -- President Barack Obama's new presidential limousine grabbed some headlines this year - especially in Detroit -- when General Motors announced in January that Obama was getting a brand-new 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine, the first presidential limo that did not carry a specific model name. The Obama limo has high-tech security features that Kennedy's limo lacked. That got me to thinking about another famous (or, perhaps more accurately, infamous) presidential limo -- one that for many years has been sitting on display, for all the world to see, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, right in the heart of Ford country -- and just five minutes from my home.
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Historians compare Obama to Kennedy, in terms of his charisma and popularity
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The Kennedy limo represents a more innocent and less anxiety-ridden time in history
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GM and the Secret Service have been tight-lipped about the Obama limo
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The government has retained ownership of recent limos, says museum curator
At the time of his assassination, Kennedy's limo had none of the high-tech features that protect Obama today -- nor was it even equipped with any of those features that have protected every other president since @placeholder.