Every other Republican in America is running. Why shouldn’t she? Right now the only woman in the field is, um, Carly Fiorina.

The headline’s a bit of a tease. As you’ll see, this is more of a “never say never” deflection than a “hell yes” statement of intent. I think she’s following the Trump strategy at this point: There’s no downside to hinting you might run even when you know you aren’t running.

“Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service, anybody would be interested,” Palin told ABC News’ Neal Karlinsky while serving wild boar chili to the homeless in Las Vegas Thursday.

When asked again if she could be “possibly” interested in a presidential campaign, she answered, “We definitely had enough of seeing that — America has had enough of seeing that — sign on the Oval Office door saying, ‘No Girls Allowed.’ I know that.”

While serving up bowls to those gathered in line, the former Alaska governor clarified, “It doesn’t necessarily have to be me, though, but no, America is definitely ready for real change.

I thought at this point she’d be fielding questions like that by saying, “Right now I’m more interested in convincing Ted Cruz to run.” He is going to run and she isn’t and she’s probably going to end up endorsing him, so might as well get the tea-party momentum rolling. Instead she’s talking about shattering the presidential glass ceiling when Cruz’s likely Democratic opponent would be … Hillary Clinton. Makes me wonder how enthusiastic Palin would be about the GOP in, say, a Bush/Clinton election, pitting a male RINO against a centrist Democrat who would, in fact, be the first woman president.

Actually, none of us would be real enthusiastic about the GOP in that scenario either.

This part of what she said operates as a Cruz endorsement, I guess:

As for who she wants to see as that “right candidate,” she described the person as someone who will “turn things around, someone who will, in some respects, I don’t know, maybe be considered a bit avant garde, to the establishment anyway, because this next person has got to realize this is war, this is war for our hunters’ future.

There’s no one running who’ll be more anti-establishment than Cruz. And Republicans are far more open to the idea of him jumping in than Palin: According to the CBS poll that Jazz blogged earlier this week, GOPers split 21/25 when asked whether they favor or oppose a Cruz candidacy. Those numbers were on par with Rand Paul’s, better than Rick Perry’s, and considerably better than Chris Christie’s. They were also far better than Palin’s, whose split was 30/59. Whatever her numbers nationally, though, she’d be a factor in Iowa if Cruz ended up passing on the race after all — not enough to win, but maybe enough to draw so many social conservatives from Huckabee that, say, Scott Walker ends up winning the caucuses instead of Huck. I could live with that. And judging by the results of today’s HA poll, so could a lot of other people.

Bottom line: I will never, ever give up the dream of a Palin-versus-McCain Senate primary challenge in Arizona. Never.