ORONO – With two graduation ceremonies, a luncheon and an evening Democratic fundraiser with Gov. John Baldacci and author Stephen King on Saturday, former senator and candidate for vice president John Edwards’ one-day visit to Maine was nonstop.

Many experts believe Edwards will run for president again in 2008, and he is not denying the rumors.

“I’m seriously thinking about it, but haven’t made a final decision,” Edwards said Saturday afternoon during a private interview with the Bangor Daily News.

With poll numbers for President Bush at a record low, 2008 might be a time for change.

“I think his poll ratings are a reflection of the incompetence with which he’s governed the country,” Edwards said. “Everything from the mess in Iraq to the response to the hurricane to the effort to implement the prescription drug benefit and the corruption in Washington: It’s all a pattern of incompetence.

“I think the American people know we can do better than this,” he said.

Maine is similar to his home state of North Carolina, in that both have seen the departure of industrial and mill jobs. Edwards grew up in a mill town and worked in the mill as a teenager and while in college.

“It’s very familiar,” he said. “The mill my father worked in is closed.”

Investments need to be made in equipment and today’s youth to ensure a brighter future for the country, he said.

“We have to find ways to make ourselves more competitive,” Edwards said. “That means embracing and investing in science and mathematics – areas that will keep us on the cutting edge.

“I think it’s a huge issue for America,” he said.

Increasing the minimum wage, creating jobs, expanding access to public education and investing in cleaner sources of energy, along with proactive conservation of resources, are all on his agenda, Edwards said.

Saturday’s Maine visit was the second for the former North Carolina senator since campaigning at the University of Maine during the 2004 presidential election in which he was the Democratic pick for vice president in John Kerry’s unsuccessful run for president.

He returned to Maine to serve as commencement speaker for UM’s graduation, which was split into two sessions because of the size of the Class of 2006. During the break between speeches, he had lunch at the president’s house on campus. In the evening he went to Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono for a political fundraiser to benefit the Senate Democratic caucus.

There he met popular author Stephen King for the first time and Gov. John Baldacci.

“‘Shawshank Redemption’ [by King] is one of my favorites, maybe my favorite movie,” Edwards said.

On Sunday, he was back in North Carolina to give the commencement address for the School of Law graduation at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is where he is director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

Edwards was unaccompanied by any family members Saturday because his two young children play on the same baseball team and had a weekend game, he said.