LEWISTON – As she campaigned Wednesday at Lewiston-Auburn College, Elizabeth Edwards sat down to answer questions. The following are excerpts from that interview:

Q: If your husband becomes vice president, what issues would you focus on?

A: “I’m the daughter of a 30-year Navy veteran. There are military families being let down right now. I’d advocate for military families. I’d also advocate for after-school programs and preventative health care.”

Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced, and how did it help prepare you for life in the White House?

A: “The death of our son. … When people say things that are nasty they don’t bother me. I and my husband understand what’s important and what’s not. Words don’t bother us. You keep your eye on the ball.”

Q: What did you say to your husband after he debated Dick Cheney, and what was your reaction to the debate?

A: “I told him he was great. My reaction was any Republican who thought they could continue to tell the American public my husband didn’t have what it took … to be vice president had been deprived of an argument.”

Q: In many ways you’re a typical middle-class mom, involved in youth groups, soccer, PTO. But your problems are probably not the kind other families have, or are they?

A: “Because over the years we’ve been successful, we don’t have some of the economic problems we had when we first started. … When my second child was born, I had a C-section, I went back to work after six work days. If I didn’t we wouldn’t be able to make the house payment. It’s not like we haven’t been there. We understand people do what they have to do. … There’s a nobility to work that can’t be replicated because you’ve got dollars in your pocket. That’s a lesson this president has never learned.”

Q: Lots of husbands can be frustrating for leaving messes such as clothes on the floor. What kind of husband is John Edwards?

A: “He likes things to be neat. If you take a shower in the morning, you come back and he’s made the bed already. He likes to do his own laundry. If you’ve got a load in and haven’t moved it to the dryer, he’ll do that, too. My only complaint about his cleaning … if something’s out, he’s put it away and who knows where it’s going to be.”

Q: From being married to him for 27 years, can you share something about him that gives us a glimpse of the kind of vice president he’d be?

A: “He is the most focused person I ever saw. He can do two things at one time. He was trying a case four and a half hours away. He also coached a soccer team my son played on. … He got the judge to let court out early Friday. He came back and coached that afternoon.” He spent the weekend both coaching and working on the case. “When he says he’s going to do something, he means it.”

Q: It seems you play an important advisory role to John Edwards. Would you remain your husband’s most important adviser?

A: “I’m probably his most trusted adviser but not in terms of policy.” She’ll tell him whether a tie looks good, or whether certain policy “doesn’t ring right. He knows he gets a true bounce from me. I don’t think it’s much different than the way husbands and wives interact.”