"Why can't a guy who has similar positions to Reagan win a national election?"
Bush Fatigue.
I love Bush, I really do, he is what keeps me coming back. I get emotional about him and I hate what the liberals (and even some scum bags in our own party) and MSM have done to him. I have always repsected Rudy for standing with him in some of the most undeserved darkest times I have ever seen a good man like Bush go through. When so many of our piss poor back stabbing congressman and senators have grandstanded at his expense, Rudy has always stood by him. For that.. I will in turn stand by him.
I feel that the democrats know they cant qualify for POTUS unless they lower the qualifications to their standards. I think they have accomplshed this. I think they lowered the bar. I think that a Reagan type candidadte will be viewed as too far right of that bar to "sheeple".
We haven't tried a Reagan candidate since 1984. I think much of the Bush fatigue is caused by his lack of conservatism.
Yeah, Rudy has stood by the President, and that's why I like Rudy very much as a person. But conservatism--Reagan conservatism--wins every time it's tried except in those poskets of the country that will be blue no matter what. There's no reason to jump out of the plane just yet.