When Reagan became a Republican, the party was much much more Moderate/liberal then it is today. Rudy would be considered a staunch conservative if he ran in the primaries in the 50's,60's, and 70's. Our party never became a real right of center party until the mid nineties. You think Rudy is bad on guns? You know as well as I do we used to have a lot of guys back in the day who did not want hand gun licenses but outright bans on them. From Eisenhower through Ford our candidates were either center right all the way to full on liberals in Nixon's case. Most of the people who were considered to be conservatives back in Reagan's day (Goldwater,Dole,etc.) are now considered to be centrists. By some of the litmus tests some people here want to put on our candidate like judges and immigration he would not pass muster. Reagan however was the Great President he was was not because he was 100% on all the issues but because he offered leadership and hope to our demoralized nation, slashed taxes and restrained spending pretty well considering the congress he had to work with, and he called a spade a spade and led the free world to victory against the evil and tyranny of the evil empire. In some cases the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Right, the Republican Party of the 1950`s-60`s-70`s had a strong liberal contingent called, the Rockefeller wing. The Rockefeler wing of the GOP has been dead for 30 years, and Ronald Reagan killed it!
Rudy Giuliani is a throw back to those days of Rockefeller Republicanism. Rudy is so liberal, to call him a conservative in any way, sahpe or form, is ridiculous, an absurdity, a psychotic fantasy.