So what else is new in the typical maelstrom of modern American politics?

'Republicans in Turmoil!" "Chaos Confounds GOP Congressmen!!" "Catastrophic Conservative Crack-Up Imminent!!!" "Trump Likely GOP Nominee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

All nonsense.

It's true that there have been a couple of bumps on what was hoped would be a smooth path to a happy outcome in November 2016. A boulder or two has appeared, as if out of nowhere, to make the trail to victory a bit more hazardous than was anticipated. And yes, the weather won't always be sunny as the railroad chugs toward a conservative future.

So what else is new in the typical maelstrom of modern American politics?

Consider: One month ago, John Boehner announced he would step down as speaker of the House. Some— perhaps much— of the blame heaped upon him for the problems afflicting House Republicans was unfair. But life is unfair. It was time for him to go. And though the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, is a good guy and an able politician, it was not— as he quickly demonstrated— the time for him to become speaker. There followed a touch of turmoil and a dash of drama, all of which the media found deeply significant though it was utterly transient. What it has produced is as good an outcome as Republicans and conservatives were going to get, Paul Ryan as the new speaker.

Consider: Repeated polls over the last several weeks have shown that Joe Biden would be a stronger opponent in the 2016 general election than Hillary Clinton. Now Biden has bowed out of the race. The nominee could be Hillary Clinton, who has approval/disapproval ratings way below those of anyone who's ever won a presidential election. The nominee could conceivably be Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old socialist from Vermont. Perhaps some third person will have to come in late and try to save the party after Hillary is done in by her server and emails and Bernie is judged too far left even for the post-Obama Democrats— perhaps Joe Biden, reentering the fray, or John Kerry or Al Gore or Elizabeth Warren. In any of these cases, from Hillary to Bernie to some other Social Security recipient, the fact is that in 2016 Republicans are likely to face the type of Democratic nominee they've been waiting for.

And consider: The Republican establishment and the mainstream media— two of the more clueless entities gracing contemporary American politics— have both decided in the last several days to become hysterical over the prospect of a Donald Trump nomination and presidency. Having refused to try to understand the Trump phenomenon, Republican bigwigs and media poobahs have decided to freak out about it. 

Needless to say, the expressions of panic are a perfect contrarian indicator: In a new Quinnipiac survey in Iowa, Trump has now slipped to second place, 8 points behind Ben Carson. We can be reasonably confident that Donald Trump is not going to steamroll to the nomination. And Ben Carson (the more impressive of the two, in truth) is most probably not going to be the nominee either— though if he is, he will in a way have proved both that he deserves it and that he would be formidable in the general election.

Still, a Carson nomination remains unlikely. So does a victory for Jeb Bush, the original frontrunner who turns out to be so out of sync with the times that it's hard to believe he can stage a comeback— though one would have to say that if he does, he would have proved that he is less out of step than it has seemed, and in that case he might be a formidable general election candidate as well.

Who knows? Presumably the nominee could well be Marco Rubio or Carly Fiorina or Ted Cruz. But given the fluidity and uncertainty and unpredictability of the moment, if there are other serious people who think they might be a better general election candidate or a better president, they should run.

In any case, there is no reason for panic or despair or even, really, discouragement. We should follow the British government's admonition in 1939 to Keep Calm and Carry On. As for those who might be capable of seizing the mantle of leadership, one can only echo Lord Nelson's words to his fellow Englishmen from HMS Victory at Trafalgar 210 years ago: America expects that every man will do his duty.

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William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard, which, together with Fred Barnes and John Podhoretz, he founded in 1995. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel.