Rudy is popular now. The election is way off.
You're also discounting the anti-Catholic bias in the South and in the Republican party. Not to mention the anti Italian American bias.
Being a Catholic, a Conservative Republican and an Italian American it hurts to say that but it's true.
Combine that with Rudy moving his mistress into Gracie mansion while he was still married and his social issue problems and you have a loser.
You can't cherry pick the good stuff when you're running for President.
It will all hang out the minute Rudy says he would run.
As an ex New Yorker,I like Rudy, but he is a liberal Republican New Yorker and that won't fly nationally in the Republican party.
And that's the way it should be.
People do it all the time. Some are just better at it than others. Shall we review the record?
In 2000, the GOP nominated an admitted alcoholic, who had probably also abused illegal substances earlier in life. His wife killed someone in a traffic accident when she was a teenager. His VP nominee had a record of multiple DUIs, and had had four heart attacks.
Yet each of these people had many positive qualities, and the GOP successfully presented them to the American people as positive roll models who you could be proud to vote for.