Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley indicated he may run for president in 2016 while speaking at a conference sponsored by the South Carolina Democratic Party.

“It’s something I’m very seriously considering with my wife and family,” said O’Malley. “By the spring anyone who is a challenger and intends to win should be in this. So by spring I will have made up my mind.”

When asked about Hilary Clinton, he stated that his decision was not affected by the actions of others.

“For my own part, I believe the way this is supposed to work is that if candidates feel they have ideas that will move our country forward, they should make a decision based on that and then the people will decide,” said O’Malley. “My timeline is not affected by what others may or may not do.”

O’Malley certainly sounded the part while speaking at the John M. Spratt Issues conference. He discussed a number of prominent issues that are currently troubling our country. In particular, he cited financial regulation as the most important issue of 2016. He even went so far as to suggest breaking up the country’s largest banks.

“If a bank’s too big to fail without wrecking our common good, then it’s too big and we need to take lawful measures to ensure our country’s common good is not imperiled,” said O’Malley.

O’Malley also criticized Democrats for ‘triangulation’ – the political maneuver of adopting some of your opponents ideas – as the explanation for their losses in 2012. “You’re never going to please all the people all of the time,” said O’Malley. “Finding the middle ground between a reasonable approach and an extreme approach isn’t going to serve to solve the problem.”

This will be the ninth time in two years that O’Malley has visited South Carolina. He current visit comes almost exactly one year before the state’s presidential primaries. He is not deterred by the fact that South Carolina is solidly a red state with nearly all top level positions filled by Republicans.

“I think there’s a lot of hope when you talk to the next generation,” he said. “People under 40 especially are of the belief that our better days are going to be through closer connections with each other rather than being exclusive and trying to separate ourselves from the larger community we share.”

That being said, not even he could resist taking a few jabs at the opposition. He accused the Republican party of working against equality and the betterment of society. He said that they “abhor health care in all its forms and any sort of increase in the minimum wage. They even question vaccines and climate science. Give them a few weeks and they will be shunning Copernicus.”

The crowd responded with thunderous applause.