God-o-Meter spoke today with Connie Mackey, vice president of FRCAction, the legislative action arm of the Family Research Council, about John McCain’s chances with evangelicals. She said there was “very little” communication from McCain to Christian Right groups like FRC. Mackey thinks the most important thing McCain could do to reassure conservative evangelical activists: promise not to alter the GOP platform on matters of abortion and marriage, which includes support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage (which McCain opposes) and a human life amendment (ditto). This raises an important question: will the GOP’s 2008 platform and its presidential nominee be in considerable conflict on social issues?
Another tip from Mackey to McCain: pick South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford as a running mate.
Mackey attended last weekend’s Council for National Policy meeting in New Orleans, a confab for the who’s who in the conservative movement, and reported that the response to McCain’s appearance was underwhelming:

The take on his CNP speech was that he seemed to avoid social issues and that the pro-life players were not called on [during a Q&A segment]. The impression was one of avoidance. He didn’t pick up any new enemies there, but he didn’t make any new friends, either.

A pretty dim assessment. The McCain team, for its part, believes the old line Christian Right–including advocacy groups like Family Research Council–don’t hold the sway over evangelical voters that they once did. If that theory holds up and McCain is our next president, FRC will have to fight hard to prove its legitimacy to McCain. For now, thought, it’s the other way around.

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