I don't have the time to stay and do serious battle, but, I will occasionally poke into the Rudy threads. In my opinion, the passion for Rudy is mostly driven by emotion. Rudy is the Republican version of Bill Clinton.
I agree with you, I think at this stage of the game it is mostly emotion.
Emotion of not wanting to lose-electability
Emotion of 9/11-rudy in front of the camera
Emotion of disliking minority status - win at all costs.
In fact, I think much of the early stage is emotional. We saw some serious passion with the Irey (vs Murtha) and the Harris (vs Nelson) campaigns and bother were thumped in their elections.