And doesn’t get much for his effort:

Sen. John McCain yesterday got mixed reviews from some of the conservative movement’s top donors and leaders after he addressed — and then took questions from — members of the secretive Council for National Policy.
“We didn’t lose the 2006 [congressional] elections because of Iraq, but because of runaway spending,” the putative Republican presidential nominee told the annual winter meeting of the CNP, some of whose members are skeptical at best of his claims to represent their views and goals in his bid for the presidency.
He drew cheers and applause when he said he would veto a spending bill that had earmarks and vowed to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to “make famous” the names of lawmakers who author such pork-barrel spending measures.
[…]
He did a great job of addressing fiscal conservative issues and defense conservative issues,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, Colorado Republican. “What he needs to do is start talking about social issues.”
[…]
“I appreciated his candor and consistency,” she said. “He reminded us of things he truly is conservative about — prolife and taxes — and even went so far as to raise why he was for issues like global warming that conservatives don’t necessarily agree on. Does it mean he persuaded me? No. Is my mind still open? Yes.”
A more critical answer came from the president of a Washington-based social-conservative interest group on the condition of anonymity: “If McCain can’t address the social issues at meeting like this, how can he do it out there” on the campaign trail?
Other social and religious conservatives in the CNP called his appearance a flop.
[…]
“On the other hand,” she said, “he will not find an electorate that is inspired, that will plant signs in their yards, that will mobilize their neighbors and do everything they can to get him elected. They will go to the polls and that is about it.”
Unless, that is, “he chooses a strong social-conservative vice presidential candidate,” she added.

I don’t think McCain is going to win over the leadership in the Christian community. He needs to focus on the Christian electorate and see if he can sway them. I think he needs to start making the case that even though they may not agree with him, he’s a much better alternative to Obama. He should have brought up the infanticide issue and the fact that Obama was just recently cited as the number one liberal in the Senate. If he makes the case that Obama’s much worse, maybe that would have motivated people to rally the base. And if I were him I would remind people that if they really cared about these issues, then they would not allow someone like Obama to win the election because they were too angry to do the work necessary to get him elected.
I was also thinking that maybe he should get an evangelical to help him write speeches so that he can “speak the language of Zion” when he addresses Christian groups. I was thinking it might be a good idea to get Huckabee to motivate the base but then I realized it would be in Huckabee’s best interest to sabotage McCain so that he could run again in 2012.
You know, these leaders are being very stupid. If they were smart, they would go to McCain and say you’re not winning over Christians but I think that we might be able to do it if you make us a few promises. That way they have a little more clout than they would have if they just sit on their hands and McCain gets elected anyway. I thought Huckabee was in a position to do this and it could be how he prepares his organization for 2012 or 2016 but then I figured if I were McCain and read things like this, I don’t think I would trust him. If Huckabee were smart, he would drop talk about 2012 and say that his interest right now is making sure McCain gets elected then McCain might trust him enough to accept Huckabees help in convincing Huckabee voters to vote for him.