What did Sarah Palin and Donald Trump talk about?
Sarah Palin met Donald Trump for dinner Tuesday night, and the US news media may never be the same. From the amount of coverage it got, you’d have thought FDR and Winston Churchill were having pizza in New York to discuss Allied coordination for World War II.
OK, we’ll bite: What did they talk about, anyway? A Palin-Trump ticket? “That sounds exciting! Sounds unconventional!” said the former Alaska governor when asked that question by an onlooker.
There are lots of reasons a Palin-Trump presidential bid might make crazy sense, if you know what we mean. We’ve written about that before.
But you don’t negotiate a deal like that while TV crews fog up the windows of Famous Famiglia Pizzeria and you munch on a pie with pepperoni and sausage. No, the actual words that passed between Ms. Palin and Mr. Trump in this encounter weren’t that important. What was important, particularly for Palin, was the image. She almost certainly just wanted this confab to be seen to have occurred.
Why? Palin wants Trump voters. Or ex-Trump voters, since The Donald says he’s not running. And she wants to associate herself with one of the few people on the planet who is better at getting attention than she is.
If Palin does run, she’s going to want Trump and his money on her side. Who else is he going to endorse? Mitt Romney? Mr. Romney doesn’t seem like Trump’s type: We bet he eats pizza with a knife and fork. (So do we, but only because it slows us down.)
Palin has positioned herself as the rogue outsider whom the GOP establishment fears. Having a slice of pizza with another rogue outsider who gives the Republican National Committee the vapors is a winning move, from her point of view. It validates her rogue-ivity, or rogue-atude, or whatever. Is that Tim Pawlenty quietly sobbing over there in the corner? No worries – pass the cannoli!
As to where Palin will go next, she’s not saying. If she’s going north toward New Hampshire, we’d recommend staying off I-95, as the potholes are terrible. Take the Hutchinson River Parkway, which becomes the Merritt once you’re in Connecticut. Although she might not be able to take her One Nation bus on that route – the bridges are pretty low.
