RALEIGH, N.C. – An editor with the News & Observer of Raleigh will become a deputy secretary at the North Carolina Transportation Department to lead communications efforts.

Transportation Secretary Gene Conti on Monday announced the appointment of Ted Vaden as deputy secretary for communications.

Conti said he obtained permission from Gov. Beverly Perdue to create the position, despite a hiring freeze imposed last fall. The new position was recommended by a consultant to help make the agency more efficient and accountable to the public.

Vaden will supervise a staff of about 20 employees and will earn $117,403 in the new post.

Vaden has been the public editor for the newspaper since 2004.

WASHINGTON – Asked by a third-grader what a vice president does, Republican candidate Sarah Palin responded that the vice president is the president’s “team mate” but also “runs the Senate” and “can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes.”

While aimed at a typical 8-year-old, Palin’s explanations oversimplify the Constitution’s definition of the duties of the vice president and don’t match the office’s traditional role in Senate activities.

The vice president’s main duty is to replace the president if the president dies, resigns, is removed from office or can no longer carry out his or her duties for other reasons. The Constitution names the vice president as the president of the Senate but allows the vice president to cast a vote only to break a tie.

The vice president, as a member of the executive branch of the government, has no official role in developing legislation or determining how it is presented to or debated by the Senate, which is part of the legislative branch. In all meaningful ways, the leader of the majority party runs the Senate.

Traditionally, the vice president appears in the Senate for ceremonial events and in case of a tie vote. Although the vice president can preside over the Senate, vice presidents have left that day-to-day chore to senators themselves. In the past, each president has determined the role of the vice president in an administration.
  
The subject of the vice president’s duties came up as Palin sat for an interview with KUSA-TV in Denver, which has a feature called “Question from the Third Grade.” The interviewer asked, “Brandon Garcia wants to know, ‘What does the vice president do?”‘

“That’s a great question, Brandon, and a vice president has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the president’s agenda, they’re like the team member, the team mate to that president,” Palin said.

“But also, they’re in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job and I look forward to having that job,” she said.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Democrat Barack Obama said Thursday that his rival John McCain is out of touch with the economic struggles of Americans and doesn’t understand that there’s nothing more fundamental than a job.

Obama hammered McCain’s economic record during a rally in Michigan, a state struggling with the country’s highest unemployment rate. Obama said the government’s jobs report coming out Friday is expected to show a ninth straight month of decline.

“Nine straight months of job loss,” Obama said. “Yet, just the other week, John McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Well, I don’t know what yardstick Sen. McCain uses, but where I come from, there’s nothing more fundamental than a job.”

The country’s financial woes appear to be benefiting Obama’s campaign. Increasing numbers of voters say Obama is better suited to lead through the crisis.