The AC’s mistake is to believe that Palin is somehow the authentic ordinary person that Bush never was, that she’s a real mom with strong values who can be counted on to avoid the neocon clutches.

The AC warns Palin against the warlike neocon tendencies that her running mate fully embraces and that her briefing books surely endorse.

Neoconservatives pay lip service to life, but, as their enthusiasm for Lieberman shows, they have higher priorities. Now they plan to make them yours.

The AC persuasively indicts the neocon desire to reignite the Cold War while fighting Islamofascism and spreading democracy worldwide. It surveys the neocon strategy of aggression around the globe and argues in favor of noninterventionist positions. It would be worth Palin's time to read the letter, assuming The AC is among the many unnamed newspapers and magazines that Palin claims to read.

The AC’s analysis stumbles when it urges Palin to reject these views and to follow the heart that beats within a true conservative. Palin’s heart may be full of faith, but her understanding of foreign policy is clearly nonexistent. She will embrace McCain’s positions with loyalty and relief, to the extent that she can understand and remember them. (Perhaps if she reduces them all to song lyrics, ala “Bomb Iran,” she can more easily keep them in mind. This advice seems about as useful as The AC’s.)

The AC wants Palin to be offended that her trainers are treating her like a blank slate.

You’ll find the new friends conducting your foreign-policy crash course pleasant enough, if a little dogmatic and a lot condescending. They call you “Project Sarah.” We saw that one staffer at AEI—that mystery monogram on all your briefing books—said you’re “a blank slate.” He added, “She’s going places, and it’s worth going there with her.” That’s how they operate. They don’t implement their agenda themselves. Rather, they impose it on rising star. If things don’t work out, it’s because the Project wasn’t sufficiently committed. (Just ask President Bush.)

Probably true, but authentic ordinary people like Palin are more likely to watch The OC than to read The AC. Palin’s brief exposures to the sunlight of journalistic inquiry demonstrate her lack of interest in foreign policy. Traditional conservatives are a bit late offering their advice. At this point, Project Sarah is absorbing McCain’s belief system, including his willingness to use military power to promote an American vision of the world. And if through misfortune Palin becomes president, she will do as the McCain team tells her to do. She will be More of the Same on religiously fueled speed. The religious right will love her, but traditional limited government conservatives will be just as disenchanted with her as they are with George Bush.