Enough bashing of social conservatives who supported Rudy. As a conservative, I supported Rudy knowing full well he was a moderate, because the political climate wasn't friendly to strong conservatives at the time, and he was a good candidate to attract voters alienated with the GOP brand. Rudy was strong on defense issues and was a solid fiscal conservative who turned a dump like New York City around. He is a friend of Israel and an advocate of freedom and capitalism. We were going to run against Hillary or Obama and their socialist agenda was well known to those who supported him, and we needed an articulate candidate who could make the case for our ideology as the best direction for the nation. The ironic thing here is that Rudy didn't have contempt for conservatives. It was in fact social conservatives who had an unyielding contempt for the man and for all those who supported him.
Rudy lost, as conservatives didn't want him, and that's fine. So we got someone the media and the GOP establishment wanted, and we know what happened. I support conservative causes and conservative candidates 100%, but in the absence of a strong, credible conservative leader I had to choose the best GOP candidate available to go against Hillary or Obama. I was right about the negative consequences that came from electing Obama. However, it isn't a vindication, since the stakes are high under Obama's leadership. If you compare Rudy with Obama, the choice is clear that Rudy would be much less harmful and detrimental to our nation and our way of life.