Don Petersen | Special to The Roanoke Times

U.S. Senate hopeful Mark Warner (left) speaks with diners Thursday at the Roanoker Restaurant. The visit was part of a broader swing through Western Virginia.

The group of Roanoke business owners, bus drivers, wine distributors and retirees who met with U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner on Thursday was as diverse as you'll find in the valley, but they all seemed to have the same concerns in mind: rising gas prices, food prices and a generally slow economy.

For his part, Warner offered up little in terms of a one-shot solution.

"I'm probably not going to be the guy with the silver bullet," Warner told them. "Some of these things took us 35 years to get into."

But the Democrat and former Virginia governor did offer up bits and pieces that -- once assembled -- formed the outline of a comprehensive energy policy and broader campaign platform.

The meeting at the Roanoker Restaurant was part of a broader swing through Western Virginia for Warner. After Roanoke he visited New Castle, Pearisburg, Bland and Pulaski before planned visits in Franklin County and Southside today.

Warner's Republican opponent, Jim Gilmore, plans his own tour next week, when he'll start in eastern Virginia, swing through Southside and then sweep up the U.S. 29 corridor through Lynchburg and Charlottesville. Gilmore immediately preceded Warner as governor, and the two have clashed on their records and policies in the early stages of the campaign to replace longtime U.S. Sen. John Warner, who will retire at the end of this term. John Warner and Mark Warner are not related.

Gilmore has worked to peg Mark Warner as a tax-and-spend Democrat. Warner, on the other hand, has portrayed himself as less concerned with partisan politics than with being fiscally responsible and fixing problems.

That, indeed, was the tack he took to the Roanoker crowd's concerns about gas prices.

"Here's one of the things that makes me crazy about what's going on in Washington with both political parties," Warner said. "It's divided down, on energy -- it's either all going to be alternatives or it's all about drilling. This is a national crisis. We need both."

Warner said the federal government should offer more tax credits for renewable energy development and for those who purchase fuel-efficient vehicles. But he also called for Congress to lift a 26-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling and allow states to make their own decisions.

He also voiced support for nuclear power -- an energy source not typically endorsed by Democrats and their allies in the environmental movement -- saying it "shouldn't take 30 years to get a nuclear plant online in this country."

Warner said that if elected, one of his first goals would be to ally with 10 or 12 other senators from both parties to form a group of "radical centrists."

"Whether we have Mr. [Barack] Obama being president or Mr. [John] McCain being president, unless there is a group in the center of Democrats and Republicans actually working together, you're not going to get the big changes," Warner said. "I just absolutely believe our politics have been too much driven by voices on either end of the extreme."

In addition to listening and talking about his platform, Warner also worked to show his personality.

Shortly after arriving at the restaurant in a Chevy Malibu, Warner greeted Pat Coleman, who's worked at the eatery for 26 years.

"Well, I'm back again," Warner said.

And during the discussion, he told Rob and Beth Crittenden, owners of the Roanoke Valley Wine Co., a local wine distributor, that he'd try to pull some state strings to help them with a legislative issue.