only a man without morals makes a deal like that simply to make himself look good politically.

That's like saying that all Republicans are corrupt, just because that's all we ever hear about them, but wouldn't you agree that some Republicans are NOT corrupt?

You are in serious tinfoil hat territory.  Some of our enemies are Muslim, but that is as far as it goes.  Some of our enemies are home-grown fundamentalist Christians.  Some of our enemies are not even religious.  Some of our enemies hold elected office in our own country, and some of our enemies are American citizens who are looting the treasury because Dick Cheney handed them the keys.

negotiating with Islamists is pretty pointless?

Since we can't just blow every Muslim to vapor, what would you suggest other than "negotiation?"

Didn't Reagan negotiate with our sworn enemy, Iran by trading arms for hostages?  

the Islamists have been an enemy for over 20 years

And did they stop looking in his eyes when they took more hostages?

Dude, if you are not a GOP troll you should be. You have the intellect for it.

Finally, suuuuure, Rudy was joking.

Rudy said this verbatim:

Speaking of Iran, Giuliani said "they looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes and in two minutes they released the hostages."

Rudy, did not smirk, laugh, frown, or wink when he said this line. His remark was in reference to how tough the Republican Party has portrayed Reagan over the years. So, Rudy was extremely serious when he conjured up the dead likeness of Reagan in order to try and portray himself as the re-incarnated soul of Reagan. Because Rudy said Reagan was tough, Rudy was implying that he himself was also tough.

It's pretty hard to sell yourself to America these days as this type or that type of Republican. I don't think too many Repubs would try to convince Americans of their Conservativeness by stating "I'm a conservative cut from the Nixon brand" or "Look at my stance on taxes, I learned everything I know from George Bush Sr.". Because of the lack of recent (past 40 years) non-scandaled Republican Presidents, Senators, or Congress Members it's becoming harder and harder for the G.O.P. to explain its positions by contrasting G.O.P. candidates running for office now to ones that might have possibly excited the G.O.P. base in the past. They are running like hell from G.W. Bush's record in high numbers. They do not want to be compared to G.W. in this current day in age.

It looks like ole' Ronney is their man. Try to repaint history a bit and hope America doesn't remember the actual history but only remembers the history they fictionalized about the past.

Rudy said that the reason the Iranians gave up the hostages was that Reagan had been President for 2 hours. "They looked in his eyes."

The point of citing later events is that Reagan was STILL President when Iranian backed Hezbollah took MORE hostages and drove Reagan and the US out of Beirut.

Accepting the ridiculopus premise of Rudy's answer, what happened to Reagan's eyes that Hezbollah took more hostage and bombed him out of Beirut??

And let me be perfectly clear now, you mreally must be very not bright not to have understood this point the first time.