Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak was one of four mayors that Sen. Barack Obama invoked by name June 21 while addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual meeting in Miami. The others were Michael Bloomberg of New York, Richard Daley of Chicago and Frank Cownie of Des Moines. All have endorsed Obama except Bloomberg, who defended Obama before a Jewish audience June 20 but has withheld his endorsement even as he’s mentioned as a possible vice presidential selection by both Obama and Sen. John McCain.

Rybak is seen by some to be in the running for a position in an Obama administration, owing in part to Rybak’s early role in the movement to draft Obama for a presidential run, as well as his stumping for Obama and his co-chairmanship of Obama’s Minnesota campaign. Rybak has told the Minnesota Independent it "highly unlikely" that Obama would offer him a job in D.C. In an interview a week and a half before the mayors’ meeting, Rybak didn’t play up any place for himself in the limelight when Obama hit the stage in Miami. Here is what Obama said:

Now, despite the absence of leadership in Washington, we’re actually seeing a rebirth in many places. I’m thinking of my friend Rich Daley, who’s made a deep and lasting difference in the quality of life for millions of Chicagoans. I’m thinking of Mayor Cownie, who’s working to make his city green; Mayor Bloomberg, who’s fighting to turn around the nation’s largest school system; Mayor Rybak, who’s done an extraordinary job helping the Twin Cities recover from the bridge collapse last year; and so many other mayors across this country, who are finding new ways to lift up their communities.

Rybak endorsed Obama for president in December 2006. Daley endorsed Obama immediately after he announced his candidacy for president in February 2007. Cownie’s endorsement came in December 2007, a prelude to Obama’s victory in the Iowa Democratic caucuses a month later.