[imgbelt img=Carrion.jpg]The headline in the Detroit Free Press this morning was, “Obama Shows He’s an Urban Guy.” Jill Lawrence from USA Today writes, “From the hip-hop on his iPod to the urban-policy aides he named Thursday, President Barack Obama is demonstrating what it’s like to have a chief executive who’s city to his bones.” The article is about the supposedly rural focus of past administrations and the new urban interests of the Obama administration.Thursday, Obama named Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion (above, who helped the Yankees build a tax-supported baseball stadium) to be White House director of urban affairs. Obama said Carriorn “”will bring long overdue attention to the urban areas where 80 percent of the American people live and work.” There has been no talk of a similarly named office of rural affairs, except during the Democratic primary. Yonder readers will recall that candidate Hillary Clinton said turning the Department of Agriculture into the Department of Rural Affairs was a “great idea.” Various groups have said in the meantime that too much time and money has been spent on rural issues. Those in Yonder may have missed all this attention, but that message seems to have gotten through to the Obama White House.