June 01, 2011 07:24 PM UTC

Who Needs a Real Candidate, Anyway?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Our friends at the Washington Post report–in the absence of a strong contender in the current field of 2012 GOP candidates for president, 2008 vice-presidential nominee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, sensing “a void.”

And filling it. Sort of.

On day three of Sarah Palin’s unconventional bus tour came the most surprising moment by far. The former Alaska governor and her daughter Piper dined tonight with media mogul Donald Trump and his wife Melania at a pizza place in Times Square. Palin met Trump at his apartment in Trump Tower, near Rockefeller Center; they rode from there in his limo to the restaurant, part of a New York City chain…

“She didn’t ask me [to run with her] but I’ll tell you, she’s a terrific woman,” Trump said as they walked in. Trump’s special counsel, Michael Cohen, told reporters that the pair had talked in the past about meeting up whenever Palin found herself in New York.

The group shared pepperoni, sausage, and meatball pizzas.

Palin is staying in Jersey City, where she arrived via bus this afternoon after a short trip to Philadelphia. Tomorrow, she is expected to take an early morning boat from there to Ellis Island, before the crowds of tourists arrive. Then she will greet the first ferry of visitors before taking her boat back and hitting the road.

From there, Palin’s plans are something of a mystery, although she is expected to head for New Hampshire…

Nobody knows exactly what the goal of Palin’s odd, secretive “non-campaign” bus tour is–is she running for President? Is she thinking about doing so and gauging support? Showing the flag so Michele Bachmann doesn’t get ahead of herself? Is this just how she summer vacations now, being a bit of a carnival sideshow at this point in her “career?” On a practical level, the idea of randomly appearing in different places with little or no advance work, dodging the press instead of earning favorable press, is about as strange a political tour–campaign, pre-campaign, meta-campaign, whatever–as we’ve ever heard of. Even Charlie Sheen set up tour dates.

That said, pizza with fellow sideshow Donald Trump makes sense. Perfect sense, actually.

Tomorrow: a story about viable Republican candidates for president. Maybe?