Ryan Sager has numbers from a recent Club For Growth survey of its members, and they aren't pretty for McCain:

* Club members' top choice for 2008 GOP nominee for president: McCain received 5%

* Club members' least favorite choice: McCain received 43% (first place)

* McCain's favorable/unfavorable rating with Club members: Favorable 16% / Unfavorable 76% [snip}

Asked to comment, Club For Growth President Pat Toomey offered a rather bleak assessment of McCain's chances at wooing fiscal conservatives in the GOP primary.

"This is a real reflection of a serious challenge McCain has with free-market conservatives and with limited-government conservatives," Toomey said. "He very prominently spoke out against the Bush tax cuts ... He spouted class-warfare rhetoric usually voiced by the Democrats."

What's more, Toomey said it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of McCain's role in bringing campaign-finance reform to American politics with his McCain-Feingold bill. "Frankly, our members, almost by definition, are concerned with weighing in on issues and having a voice in American politics," Toomey said. "His willingness to diminish the First Amendment is a matter of great concern."

I don't think there's anything new here at all, the base's issues with McCain are well known. What's noteworthy is that despite his best efforts of mending fences and trying to work his way back into the good graces of conservatives, it appears he's made little to no progress.

This may or may not preclude him from winning the nomination. If Rudy is derailed by social issues and Romney continues to trail Democrats in general election matchups, conservatives interested in maintaining control of the White House may find themselves pulling the lever for McCain - though there won't be an ounce of love in it.