GOP Needs 'a Little Chaos:' Kristol

Republicans clamoring for unified front should "calm down" and be careful what they wish for, William Kristol writes in the Weekly Standard. Firstly, Barack Obama is hugely popular; he'll be unassailable for months. What's more, spirited debate may serve the GOP better than blind adherence to conservative philosophy. Consider 1977-80, "a period of vigorous, even hectic, political policy" among conservatives, Kristol writes.

Party backbenchers boldly embraced supply-side policies as neoconservatives sparked "Reaganite freedom-fighting" and evangelicals swung heavily GOP—"all of this in four years," Kristol writes. Likewise, today's Republicans “need to resist calls to shackle themselves to prematurely announced agendas and already anointed leaders. This is the time for a thousand Republicans to bloom.” (More Republicans stories.)