He could have done the country (and the state of NY) a great deal of good in that role, while remaining true to his 'obvious liberal leanings' as a New York senator.
I don't think that anyone (even here) would have opposed Rudy 'dethroning' Hillary. I would have thought that NY would have been perfect for him, easy pickings--after all, they know him best and his liberal positions would have been very in-tune with NY!!!
He could have defeated her,,,and THEN ran for President. He might even have gotten a few more conservatives to support his run if he had taken care of Hillary first.
But then again, his liberal leanings are not too far away from those of Hillary anyway. So I suspect he figured the 'status quo' was just fine in NY--no need to make a change there at all.
He'll never get my vote.