Ah, there’s nothing quite like American conservatives fighting amongst themselves to make an election interesting, and wake us up from eight years of the Bush consensus slumber. First, the party’s base really began to crumble this week with the exposure of deep doubts over the abilities of Sarah Palin following her collapse in a milk toast interview by Katie Couric. Ever since Kathleen Parker at the National Review published her attack on Palin, many are following suit. Some believe the heaps of abuse and mockery (see video below) being thrown out against the Alaskan governor plays to her advantage, but others think that populist charisma won’t be enough to survive the debate and media. Naturally one of the principle areas of focus in these criticisms of Palin is her claim of Russia expertise, which is one of the main points raised by an attack letter from the American Conservative – Pat Buchanan’s outfit. But looking beyond the individual, the letter highlights some of the central points of disagreement between Neocons and Conservatives as it relates to Russia policy. These are nicely summarized by the Across the Pond blog: