By wplog

Published Monday, Dec. 10, 2007 | 8:15 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.

How do you view the Intermountain West, and how do you think you can appeal to it?

Hillary Clinton

I think there is a Western sensibility. One of the great things about America is that we have this extraordinary country, but we still have regional differences and sensibilities. The Intermountain West is much more open to Democrats than it has been in a while, and I believe we’ll be very competitive.

Barack Obama

I find people here have the same concerns as people across the country: the war; lack of quality, affordable health care; education ; energy. I think people in the West are particularly concerned about land -use issues, conservation issues, water issues.

Westerners are less ideological than the politicians in Washington, less concerned about labels. They are more concerned with getting the job done, and that fits closely with how I approach issues — in a very practical way.

John Edwards

Nevada is important to the nomination process because it does represent Western states and also provides some diversity of caucus goers, which I think are very important.

The issues related to water and mining in rural Nevada are different from other parts of the country. But problems with health care, with what we should be doing about energy, getting off our addiction to oil, the war in Iraq — there is a variety of issues that connect strongly with the rest of the country.

Bill Richardson

I cherish the rugged individualism of the West. It means you’re entrepreneurial. You’re for protecting the land, air and water. You’re libertarian on civil liberties. You want limited government in your daily life.

I’m a Western governor. I’m Hispanic. I know the ranching community. I know the issues: water, immigration, energy, Yucca Mountain. So the pressure is going to be on me to do well here.

— Las Vegas Sun political reporters Michael J. Mishak and J. Patrick Coolican contributed to this report