"I cannot speak for all conservatives any more than you can..." That is the first admission of that Truth that I have ever seen from a Rudyphobe.
Dividing the far right from the GOP is not a bad thing since it is the caricature of the party as being the captive of extremists which has been so damaging as evidenced in the crushing of conservatives last fall.
NO party can be successful courting the most extreme two percent. Not the Democrat not the GOP. This is something you cannot accept. Nor does that 2% get to define "liberal" or "conservative". Since Rudy's positions on most issues are FAR closer to those of the electorate in general than are yours I don't see a problem.
People who share your views don't get elected to even Statewide offices much less National as even you should be able to see.
You apparently are clueless wrt the 06 election. An election in which EVERY conservative running for re-election to the Senate was defeated EVERY ONE was not a sign that the party had to become MORE conservative but had to address an electorate which believes conservatives to be "extremists". You don't run more extremists and hope to win.
The other huge defeat for conservativism last fall was in the House. This was the ONLY institution controlled by conservatives to the extent that it refused to go along with the President's immigration bill. NOW it has been removed from conservative control and will stand against it no more. EVERY republican who lost office was defeated by someone to his LEFT.
Now if you are foolish enough to claim that these defeats occurred because conservatives "stayed home" then you are only saying that conservatives cannot be depended on. Conservatives did NOT stay home but Independents and MOderates, without whom we can NOT win, were convinced that the GOP was too "extreme" to be trusted anymore.
Those who do not understand what the electorate is telling us cannot win.
There is nothing the media likes more than to portray the GOP as being controlled by Right Wing Religious fanatics as it has been doing for a decade or more. It does not shrink from publicizing those views because it knows that the vast majority of voters are NOT conservative. At best 35% is.
If you do not believe voters stayed home after placing Republicans in charge of all three branches of government, only to watch millions of illegal invaders stream across our border while the Republicans "protected the homeland" by burning through money like a brush fire, then it is you wearing the foolish label.
If the people of New York actually believe the Republican constituency throughout these United States will line up to vote for a liberal such as Rudy, then they have been inhaling fumes from far too many buses. Such a fantasy is no more likely to happen than voters lining up in 2006 to vote for more of the same spending, open borders, and constitutional assaults such as CFR.
I already stated my willingness to return to this thread and eat my words if Rudy wins. I have no fear, whatsoever, that I will be required to do so.
Call conservatives foolish, undependable, malcontents, unappeasables, or whatever derogatory name you wish to throw out, but you will not win the White House by fragmenting the party. Rudy is divisive!