RUDY: MORE "PALINESQUE" THAN PALIN?

You could say that if this is true:

Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to huddle with top aides soon to decide -- once and for all -- whether he will run for U.S. Senate.

But nobody should expect he will.

Simply put, there is no indication that Giuliani is preparing to run against freshman Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand -- or anyone else this year.

"There is no evidence at all, really," said former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, a longtime Giuliani confidant.

...He is not button-holing GOP county chairman or other party stalwarts in an effort to line up support.

He is not hiring staffers, traveling the state, raising political cash or dusting off old mailing lists.

The reason, say friends, is simple -- he likes his new life....

Rudy's rich (and surely doesn't have to do very much to stay that wy except be a figurehead lawyer and "consultant"). He's still famous. What's not to like.

What I read about Sarah Palin is that she'd be happy just to get a talk show. I don't believe it -- but I think a lot of people do because she seems flighty and girly, whereas Rudy must be planning a big move, because he's a Real Man.

I think he's the one who's happily for being famous-for-being-famous, whereas -- even though, yeah, she is insubstantial -- Palin still has her eyes on the White House.

Well, Rudy thought he could coast into it on public adulation, too. But right now, in terms of pure ambition, he seems like the flighty one -- his name keeps getting in the papers as a possible candidate, but it seems as if that's just rumor.

Palin's, by contrast, is aggressively reaching for something. If it's the presidency, she's going about it in a weird, Us-magazine, tease-the-paparazzi way, but I think she thinks that will work -- I think she thinks that'll work for her because she knows how to break the rules and succeed anyway. You probably disagree. But we'll see.

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UPDATE, TUESDAY: Now it appears it's going to be made official -- Rudy's expected to announce today that he isn't running for governor or senator. Here's the end of the story in the New York Daily News:

Now he has other plans, friends said.

"Yeah, like enjoying his life," said one.

Apparently, of the two, Sarah's the one who's more interested these days in being the alpha male.