I am very proud of the campaign we ran and the supporters that came on board.

I've run for statewide office plenty of times, and people know me.

What are the moral implications? What do these people do when they have tremendous amounts of money? They use that money to perpetuate their own wealth and their own power. Every day, Congress works on behalf of big-money interests.

I did a lot of reading. I read about democratic socialism. And I read about the efforts of people for such a long time trying to create a society in which all people can live with dignity. And that's kind of what I believe.

I'm running for president, because as I go around this nation, I talk to a lot of people. And what I hear is people's concern that the economy we have is a rigged economy.

It's very easy to make fun of George W.Bush, but that ain't going to do it. What we have to do is knock on doors and go into communities where there are people who disagree with us on certain issues.And we have to talk to them. They're our friends. They're our allies. They're our co-workers. We can't see them as enemies.

At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line.