Another reason Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty could help John McCain with evangelicals, from today’s New York Times:

He also carries qualifications important to many conservatives… longtime attendance at a church with a pastor who leads the National Association of Evangelicals and a mostly consistent conservatism on social issues.

That pastor would be Leith Anderson, who replaced National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard after he was enveloped by a sex and drugs scandal in 2006. How convenient for McCain, though Anderson has expressed concern about evangelical leaders cuddling up to the GOP:

There are certainly many evangelicals who hold conservative-right politics, but there are many who do not. I think in the past there has been a misperception that the group is something of a monolith in terms of race and politics and a multitude of other areas, where individuals have been perceived as the spokespersons for many when in fact they may be the spokespersons only for some.

3