Tagged: President Obama

President Obama made it official Monday afternoon: he's nominating Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to become the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

With Foxx standing by his side at a White House press conference, the president said that the mayor will be an "outstanding" transportation secretary, and that Foxx's focus on transit has helped to create jobs and attract new businesses to Charlotte.

It was the worst-kept secret in Charlotte politics. Anthony Foxx’s nomination as the 17th U.S. Secretary of Transportation is reality.

Coming a day before his 42nd birthday, Mayor Foxx’s rise has been calculated since his first run to lead the Charlotte back in 2009, followed by overseeing a fairly successful Democratic National Convention.

If the ‘once-every-four-years’ inaugural addresses are the high and visionary type of speeches that presidents give, then the State of the Union addresses are the means by which presidents fill in that vision with specificity.

This year’s combination of inaugural and State of the Union addresses by President Obama certainly did that in tandem, but didn’t bring anything new to the table beyond items that would rate high in public opinion, but no real chance to becoming formal policy.

It was a two-for debate night, with the candidates for chief executive of North Carolina and the nation having their first televised debates. Both debates were much more than the stereotyped “talking points” forums. They were both substantive, in general, and certainly set a tone for the final month of the general campaign.

When the United States was in the midst of World War I, U.S. Sen. Hiram W. Johnson, an isolationist from California, is credited with coining the phrase “the first casualty when war comes is truth.”  So it seems the same could be said for this year’s political campaigns.

This year’s campaign seems to be taking the “cut and paste” approach by both sides, and highlighting a minute piece of what a candidate says and creating a firestorm out of a dust-up.