Bleh, would it be better just to get a replacement player?
However, if the decision comes down to switching him to AI or restarting with a new player I definately vote for AI. We've all waited long enough to get this game going.
Although I agree way too much time has been lost getting this game started already, I doubt anyone would want to sub a game 2 turns in ( can't design your own pretender even with only 2 turns done) with 2 stales on his nation.