The guv hits the snowy streets

It's snowing to beat the band in Raleigh -- Looks like about 4 inches on the ground and more coming, the TV weather folks forecast. And here's a sight: The governor of North Carolina is out on the streets to visit with DOT crews spreading salt and plowing roads. Now, it's not unusual to see a governor out and about after a major hurricane or other natural disaster, but unusual to see the governor out and on TV -- deliberately being seen and heard -- in a snowstorm. Being a hands-on, on-site manager was a promise of Gov. Bev Perdue's election campaign, and she and her Secretary of Transportation, Eugene Conti, were out and about talking to the DOT troops this morning. It seems as though we've seen more of the governor in the 10 days she's been in office that we saw of her predecessor over the last year, though that's surely not the case. Still, the new governor seems to relish public appearances in a way that Mike Easley never did.