I hate to spell this out, but what you just wrote is almost certainly the strategy here.
Which I definitely do not agree with.
Let me expand... I would work to the death to see a REAL conservative beat McCain in the primary.
Feel better?
Same here, that is some strategy. Then we will hear four years maybe eight of the same people complaining about how bad it is. The old cut off your nose to spite you face routine.
The strategy is just to hurt the GOP by helping an unacceptable candidate: McCain. Make us spend more money, maybe force our actual nominee to "mis speak" or take a less than optimum position on some issue during the primary.
Of course, in their wet dreams the media would like to see him run as a third party candidate and split the non-Democrat Party vote. I doubt he or Rudy'll even try though. They can't win.