Bill Kristol has little influence on the GOP and in no way “discovered” Palin. She was being boosted here before McCain choose her. She has nothing to do with “neo-cons”.
It isn’t an upopular philosophy since the VAST majority of Republicans have no idea that it even exists if it exists. What politician calls himself a “neo-con”? NONE.
Neocon is an unpopular philosophy. If you’re arguing that the name “neocon” doesn’t sound as bad to voters as “War All The Time”, or “Spread Democracy By Force”, which is the neocon intellectual underpinning of “War All The Time”, you might be right about that.
I will say that the ties between Palin and Kristol are not extremely strong, it’s not like Kristol managed her Mayor of Wasilla campaign.