Once again, discussion of whether conservatives will vote for Giuliani over McCain generated a flood of email responses, mostly in Giuliani's favor:

I, along with an overwhelming majority of my friends plan on supporting Rudy in the primaries. I am a staunch conservative, and disagree with Rudy on several key issues (you hit the main ones in your blog yesterday). But the reasoning is two-fold: 1) Rudy solves problems, and is viewed in that light by many conservatives. We don't see a great deal of grandstanding or foaming at the mouth about "how bad these problems are" and "what we need to do", blah, blah, blah as we see with McCain and most other blowhard senators - regardless of party afiliation. 2) McCain, while professing to be conservative, caves on everything from taxes, to the judiciary, and wastes precious government time delving into less important issues, i.e. the sports-related investigations. I'd rather admit my losses up front where the judiciary is concerned, and let Rudy solve a few problems. It is a much more desirable alternative than McCain's holier-than-thou bloviating, and backstabbing, where nothing gets done in the end.

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I consider myself a "religious right" person, and am nonetheless enthused about Rudy and antagonistic to McCain. Your analysis is pretty on key, I think. There's something about McCain that doesn't ring conservative (opportunisitic, maybe) And there's quite a difference between agreeing with McCain-Feingold post facto, and having your name on it. And nothing any national politician has done will ever top the refusal of the check from the Saudis. That shows who Rudy is, what he believes and what he'll put up with, and won't. There's no candidate for president on our side whose views match mine 100%, and I wish Rudy was more pro-life. But he'd be a great president, and on the right side of the aisle.

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As a "Jesse Helms Conservative" in South Carolina, I would vote for Rudy in a hearbeat if he could provide assurances that social issues were, for him, legislative rather than judicial issues, and would be appointing people to the court based on a philosophy of judicial restraint and sound, constitutional jurisprudence, that included commerce in the mix.

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I would like to add my 2 cents worth to why I am STRONGLY supporting Rudy over McCain, and I am a conservative. The reasons you state about his likeability factor are very true. But it is more than that. He has run a large city; he dealt with the bureaucracy, and all the various elements that make up NYC very successfully. To me that is why I think there hasn't been a president since JFK who didn't have more governmental and/or managerial experience than simply running a Senate staff. Beyond that, I lived in NYC during the 90s and what a difference that man made. I am much more interested in a man (or woman) with a vision and true leadership skills which I think Rudy showed us before and on 9/11. I only worry about his more liberal social issue views in that they might hurt him from getting the nomination. In spite of disagreeing with him on some of those issues, I believe he would be the best man to lead us during the next certain to be troubled four years after 2008.

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As a lower case "c" conservative I disagree with Giuliani on some issues, but can live with honest disagreements having tremendous respect for his character and judgment on other issues. Giuliani was an agressive prosecutor, and he ran NYC which is no small task. Giuliani in my mind has the sine qua non of any man or woman who seeks to take on an executive position such as the Presidency. He acts. Of Teddy Roosevelt it was said he was pure act; and Giuliani seems cut from the same cloth.

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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

YES, southern, Christian, conservatives will vote for Rudy. ANYBODY but McCain.

By the way, that last email was signed, "Grandmother from the rural South."

A couple of self-identified single issue national security voters pronounced both candidates acceptable, and a few said neither would get their vote.

Some also found it ironic that the man critics used to refer to as "Adolf Giuliani" and the "Mussolini of Manhattan" is now cloaked in the mantle of likeability:

Rudolph Giuliani's controlled pugnacity may seem refreshing now to heartland conservatives, but I predict that feeling won't last out a long campaign. Do you like arrogance, vendettas, barely concealed disdain for citizens and adversaries treated as enemies? You don't know him the way New Yorkers do -- but if he runs for President, you will. I voted for him twice for mayor, and I assure you there wasn't an ounce of affection in it. The city needed him. Can the same now be said for the country? As president he will be non-ideological and yet polarizing.

Then again, stories of McCain's temper are legion - and legendary. Here's one from a reader who says he is a former Hill staffer for one of the most conservative Members of Congress:

I staffed a couple of House-Senate conference committees and McCain is a nightmare. He was brusque with the other Members and in one meeting berated a staff person in front of everyone for a rather minor transgression. At one point I thought his head was going to explode he got so red in the face. It was apparent that the other members of the conference committee were uncomfortable with his behavior. He struck me as petty, self-righteous and tyrannical. When he has taken his "maverick" positions, they appear highly calculated to get maximum exposure for him in the media and designed to put a thumb in the eye of either the Senate leadership or the Bush Administration or both. The press, of course, eats it up when a Republican criticizes his own party. He is a fool to think the major media will continue its flirtation with him as soon as there is a real Democrat in the race against him. He is only useful to the press when he is bashing his own party. Giuliani on the other hand has never, to my knowledge, spent much time attacking his fellow Republicans as easy as that would have been for him in deep blue NYC. Most of us are politically mature enough to know that there is virtually no candidate with whom we will agree on every issue and even where we may not see eye-to-eye with Giuliani, we don't feel insulted by him.....

Ultimately, most presidents have little real say about gay rights or gun control other than to sign or veto laws regarding the same after Congress hashes it all out. In the case of abortion, the political branches long ago ceded that issue to the courts. On gun control, abortion and gay rights, I suspect that Giuliani will be respectful to all comers on those issues; McCain has proven he won't. Giuliani has his baggage but so does McCain. On the whole, Giuliani has plenty of issues that the base can love and a raft of personal characteristics that would make him a fine candidate.

One late email from a liberal friend makes a worthwhile point:

key internal of one poll I saw last week--can't remember which one--was that 75% of those surveyed did not know Rudy's positions on social issues--again, don't remember whether that was Republican voters or entire electorate. That's obviously key threshold for him--at this stage, you just can't underestimate how LITTLE people know about most of these people. Look at Obama--for us, we feel like he's practically living in our homes, we're already sick of him!!! Yet even 45% of Dems don't have a clue about the guy (which does make his polling results pretty impressive, i.e. most people who do know about him have a very favorable impression, and his upside is much higher than, say, Hillary).

I tend to think that Republican activists (i.e. the kind of people who will vote in primaries) are fairly well informed about Giuliani even at this early stage and do have at least some level of understanding about his position on social issues. I may be wrong - and certainly issues surrounding Giuliani that might perceived as being somewhat benign right now may look very, very different after sharp-shooters from rival campaigns get done framing them for conservative primary voters.