Old Europe

Peggy Noonan, the veteran Washington insider, writes a nice piece on the changing of the guard in Northern Ireland, France and Great Britain: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010058. She regards the developments there with what can only be characterized as a sense of optimism. I don't know that I share her view, but I will certainly concede that things may not look as bleak as they did a year or two ago, especially with respect to France.