Could 'going rogue' save Romney? Sarah Palin says You betcha!

With Mitt Romney's recent dip in poll numbers in his presidential campaign, Sarah Palin believes Romney's solution to a turnaround is to "go rogue" and give the country a "come to Jesus moment."

"With so much at stake in this election, both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan should 'go rogue' and not hold back from telling the American people the true state of our economy and national security," said Palin in a statement to The Weekly Standard on Saturday. "They need to continue to find ways to break through the filter of the liberal media to communicate their message of reform." As The Hill reminds us, the phrase "going rogue" is one Palin uses often to describe her philosophy and is also the name of Palin's 2009 best-selling memoir. "America desperately needs to have a 'come to Jesus' moment in discussing our big dysfunctional, disconnected, and debt-ridden federal government," the former half-term Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate told the conservative magazine. This isn't the first time Palin has given this advice. In April 2012, Palin urged the eventual GOP presidential nominee to choose someone like her as running mate. In other words, someone that would 'go rogue'. "What I would advise Mitt Romney, or whoever the nominee is: don't necessarily play it safe and do just what the GOP establishment expects them to do," she said on NBC's "Today" show, which she was guest-hosting, the Hill reported. The conventional path would be to "take somebody just kinda going along to get along, not willing to really shake it up, not willing to 'go rogue' and say that we need relentless and sudden reform of our government to put it back on the side of the people," Palin said. That's why many Republicans were so excited to see that Romney choose the road less traveled and pick Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Budget Committee chairman who energized conservatives with his budget proposals and sweeping plans for entitlement reform. "Paul Ryan was heralded for injecting the Mitt Romney campaign with conservative cred and a true believer’s zest for battle when he joined the ticket," Politico reported. But something has happened since Romney introduced Ryan as his running mate in front of the battleship USS Wisconsin. "Ryan has been used as a mini-Mitt," says Politico. In other words, "instead of Ryanizing Romney, the congressman’s supporters fear just the opposite has happened." This is just what Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told radio host Charlie Sykes on Friday. He is bewildered by the way things have gone since Ryan was picked,Politico said. “I thought [picking Ryan] was a signal that this guy [Romney] was getting serious, he’s getting bold; it’s not necessarily even a frustration over the way Paul Ryan’s been used but rather in the larger context. I just haven’t seen that kind of passion I know Paul has transferred over to our nominee, and I think it’s a little bit of pushback from the folks in the national campaign. But I think for him to win, he’s gotta [do] that.” Walker added, “They not only need to use [Ryan] out on the trail more effectively, they need to have more of him rub off on Mitt … I think too many people are restraining him from telling [his vision]," according to the Christian Science Monitor. Where 'going rogue' got its start After Arizona Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president, surprised the nation by picking Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Palin energized the GOP base and gave John McCain a huge boost in the polls. But ten days before Election Day in 2008, after several key aides to the McCain campaign suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue." "She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet, Politico reported. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. "I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said. When asked to respond, a Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out. "Her strategy was to be trustworthy and a team player during the convention and thereafter, but she felt completely mismanaged and mishandled and ill advised," the person said. "Recently, she's gone from relying on McCain advisers who were assigned to her to relying on her own instincts." "There are people in this campaign who feel a real sense of loyalty to her and are really pleased with her performance and think she did a great job," said a McCain insider. "She has a real future in this party."