What did you learn from your loss in '04?

JOHN EDWARDS (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

In recent interviews with the Globe editorial board, the three leading Democratic presidential candidates were each asked a question unique to his or her campaign. Here are their answers.

IF I WAS paying any attention, I learned a lot. Well, I think we're at a place in our country's history where a lot of the trust relationship between the president and the American people has been destroyed and I think there is a lot of work to be done to restore that trust. I think what that means for this election is the American people have to believe that their president is being straight with them, including about the war, or about Iran, or farm subsidies, or whatever. Whatever the issue is. Or subsidizing healthcare for people who make $100,000 a year. I mean, whatever the issue is, they have to believe that the president is being straight with them about it.

I have a different view of New Hampshire. What politicians usually do is they come to you and pander about how important the New Hampshire primary is. But if you listen to what they're saying, what they're usually saying is that this New Hampshire primary is so important because it can help elect the president of the United States. That's really what they're saying.

I say something very different. What I believe is because New Hampshire voters, and Iowa caucus goers to some extent, because they get a chance to evaluate us in person at a level that none of the rest of America gets, that they have a huge responsibility to evaluate the trustworthiness of every candidate. I usually end the meeting by saying, you know me. You make your own decision, up or down, and I will live with it. But for our country, please put that test to everybody because it is so crucial that when this election is over and we go into the next presidency, that the American people feel like they can trust their president. [In '04] I don't think that was the focus. I think the focus in '04 was about George Bush and everything Bush had done wrong, and I think we are in a different place in America right now.