If Rudy wins, I strongly believe he will split the party. And then it wouldn't matter whether someone voted for Rudy or voted for the splinter group, no matter which one ended up larger. Hillary would get 42 percent or so, just like Bubba did in 1992, and the Dems win.
Rudy is being promoted as the likely winner because of name recognition and fund-raising and the perception that he can win. He might well win the nomination on those factors.
But those were the exact same factors that propelled Kerry to the Dem nomination in 2004, over much-more experienced candidates. The Dems thought he could win.
And overlooked a very important detail. The post-Vietnam baggage that Kerry had on his person.
And the Swifties exploded that like a grendade and he never recovered - and Kerry also turned off conservative Dems.
Look at the ammo Rudy can give to the Dems. They can run his cross-dressing pictures to turn off social conservatives. They can beat on the Bernie Kerik scandal to tarnish his WOT credentials. In the age of alt media, YouTube and the internet, negative advertising will feed on such baggage - even more than it did in 2004.
IMO the Rudy boosters are making the same mistake as the Dems did - blindly following a notion that Rudy can win without thinking through the endgame.
Throw in the fact that he is on the far left of the party, with views very unpalatable to many to the right of the party, and he will have a very hard time both holding the base and attracting the Reagan Dems back to the GOP. His candidacy is a recipe for utter disaster. We need someone else.
It looks like it's split already. Rudy is the front running candidate of the Republican party like it or not.
At this rate I'm wonder if any Republican can win. We can't get together behind one person ... even the Dims have rallied around Hillary even when they don't particularly like her. It does not bode well for us.
If that fails and the republicans nominate someone else, then I will vote for them. They might not be my first choice, my second choice, or even my fifth choice, but I do choose them over Hillary or Obama or one of the other nightmares.
I do not have a problem with your fears about a Rudy run for president. I respect it and hope to see it on threads. I have not known you to be nasty while expressing your opinion.
If we could bring back the civility, then these threads would be alot less about defending ourselves and debating the issues. Then maybe we can change minds and influence people once more. What a welcome change.
You're doing your darnest to make sure that happens, aren't you.