John McCain has made several unexpected moves during his campaign. For instance, he picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice president. After an initial surge of support, her charming personality has given way to revelations about her lack of familiarity with the issues and Troopergate -- which led a bipartisan committee to conclude that she violated an Alaskan law prohibiting abuse of power. Now McCain may be questioning whether this maverick move hurt him more than it helped.

McCain also decided to suspend his campaign last month to deal with the financial crisis. Coincidentally, this decision came just a few days before McCain was to debate his opponent during a week when he was down in the polls. As it turns out, McCain resumed his campaign in time for the debate but without fixing the crisis. Did this maverick move strengthen McCain's image as a strong, effective leader?

At the end of a week in which the S&P 500 fell over 18%, more than it ever has in any previous week in history, some in the Republican party are questioning whether McCain's campaign is functioning as well as it could. Former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, has suggested that what McCain needs is a "broad vision of how he would lead the country through the economic crisis," according to the New York Times. This comment suggests a maverick move that McCain could take to revive his chances: replace Palin with Romney.

Continue reading Memo to McCain: Replace Palin with Romney

Memo to McCain: Replace Palin with Romney originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.