Bernie Sanders 'prepared to look seriously' at presidential bid

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he's "prepared" to run for U.S. president in 2016, but cautioned against interpreting his comment as an official announcement.

In an interview with the Nation, Sanders said he feels the United States faces serious problems and lacks "serious political discourse or ideas" to address these crises, and that "somebody has got to represent the working-class and the middle-class of this country in standing up to the big-money interests who have so much power over the economic and political life of this country."

"So I am prepared to run for president of the United States," Sanders, 72, said in the interview published Thursday. "I don't believe that I am the only person out there who can fight this fight, but I am certainly prepared to look seriously at that race."

He said he wasn't actively organizing or raising money, but was talking to across the country.

"But I think it's premature to be talking about [the specifics of] a campaign when we still have a 2014 congressional race in front of us," he said.

If he runs, he hasn't decided whether to run as an independent or as a Democrat, Sanders said.

While noting voter alienation from the Republican and Democratic parties, Sanders said running as an independent it "would be much more difficult to get adequate coverage from the mainstream media running outside of the two-party system."