EXACTLY!!
"You know, I keep hearing from the Rudy boosters about the "great leadership" that Rudy provided during and after 9/11"
Perhaps if you lived in New York, and experienced first-hand how Rudy's no-nonsense approach to governing transformed this city, MY city, long before 9/11, you might recognize great leadership.
There is not one, NOT ONE, Conservative (as you define it) who can win a Presidential election and keep the Liberals and Democrats from sweeping into total power - with all that that implies, including judgeships.
There are only TWO Republicans with the name-recognition, star-power and fund-raising abilities to stop Hillary: Rudy and McCain.
On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the most Conservative, nobody left of an 8 votes for Haley Barbour, or any of the so-called "Conservative values" group, and hence cannot win an election.
Rudy would get votes from 4 to 9, and that could win an election. Add to that the fact that he is where he needs to be on what I consider the most important and defining issues of our time, the GWOT and judicial nominations, and the fact that he is anti-tax-and-spend is icing on the cake. I can, I MUST, look past everything else.
The argument here is between ideology and practicality. If you let Hillary get in because your ideology will not allow you to vote for Rudy, you may as well go start your own country somewhere, because you won't recognize this one when the Dems are done with it.
Eternal Democrat control depends upon two things: the abolition of the Electoral College and massive amounts of dole-sucking immigration. Couple huge voting blocs beholden to Democrats for the food they feed their children every night with the tyranny of the majority rule, and you guarantee their power for the lifetime of our children and our children's children.
The stage is set for both of these things. Nationalism is now a dirty word. Patriotism is for loony far-right-wingers. Our children emerge from the universities bathed and scrubbed in multi-culturalism, and anybody that doesn't understand how the white man commited genocide upon an entire continent must be a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.
America is a ripe fruit ready for the picking. Stay home and you're letting Hillary climb onto your back to harvest it.