If I’ve been quiet lately (on this blog and to my friends) it’s because I’ve been neck deep in a great project that just launched today – MayorTV.com.

MayorTV is a series of 2-4 minute interviews, in which 10 top mayors challenge the Presidential candidates to start talking about cities. Rural states – Iowa and New Hampshire – may dominate the electoral calendar. But 80% of Americans live in cities, not the country. Forget county fairs and tractor pulls! It’s time for the candidates to talk about the issues that matter to urban America.

I’m honored that Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute brought me in to produce MayorTV. Though I can’t claim the idea was mine. It sprang from an innovative partnership between DMI and The Nation magazine. Both organizations lean progressive, but the project was emphatically non-partisan and non-ideological. Our interview questions were about meaty policies, creative solutions and real issues facing cities – not politics. Still, that didn’t stop some mayors from aggressive attacking the Bush administration for ignoring urban America (see videos of Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles).

One unexpected lesson I learned — America loves its mayors. These guys (and they are almost entirely guys) get elected by 60, 70, 80 percent. Their approval ratings are consistently high. The size of the city seems to correlate to mayoral popularity – the smaller a town, the more popular the mayor. Makes sense to me. Mayors solve problems for people. They deliver services. They’re hands-on, nitty-gritty public servants, not distant figures fighting wars and dictating morality.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying that mayors embody the best of American government. They prove that when Americans look out for each other – when we come together, pool resources and solve problems – everyone benefits. For an often-jaded political hack like me, that’s pretty inspiring.

Get inspired yourself: MayorTV.com.