Barack Obama: America’s First Urban President

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Mr. Obama is a city guy — not a suburban or rural person — somewhat by upbringing, but more by choice as an adult who could live anywhere. As such, he sees the world through a different prism than those presidents who came from more suburban or rural locales.

“He chose an environment where he came face-to-face with issues that people who live in the suburbs don’t know or think about,” says Bill Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer.

Mr. Obama made the choice for an urban lifestyle when he became a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. That decision set him apart from most of his countrymen, only about 20% of whom live in the big cities.

Not your typical American guy,in 2008.