I suspect John McCain has been having this thought at least since the financial crisis hit. I really wished he had. Not as a partisan, because Sarah Palin is so dumb and so wingnutty and so artificial and incapable of actually connecting to real people, regardless of what elite pundits say, that she's really helping to drag this ticket down all on her own.
As a citizen, though, I wish it had been Romney. He's a financial guy who probably understands the crisis; he's an experienced, steady hand; and he knows his stuff. This debate could have been about substance, about two different visions for the future for America. Instead it was about a minimally competent national candidate beating the bigotry of low expectations while losing to a superlatively qualified national candidate.
Obama is likely to win at this point, but McCain still might, and I sure wish that I had the knowledge of knowing that if McCain kicked the bucket in the White House, Romney would be the one responding to the crisis. I have no confidence in Sarah Palin, and though she avoided catastrophe in this debate she has not reassured me, nor most people, that she's fit for the toughest job in the land.
