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 Ah, optimism. Once again, it shows up when a new year begins. 2014 is no exception. On the domestic front, various economists have issued bullish prognostications on GDP growth this coming year. After its disastrous introduction, the Affordable Care Act seems to have gained a foothold leading many on the left to perhaps prematurely declare it a success.  Even immigration reform is poised to move forward in Congress: Speaker of the House John Boehner, suddenly emboldened to push back against the Tea Party contingent in the House GOP, indicated  a willingness to tackle the issue.

Progressives are hoping that the election of one of their own, Bill De Blasio, as mayor of New York City presages a general move to the left in public policy. Of course, the test for the new mayor will be his ability to govern as effectively as his autocratic predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

The improving picture domestically is off-set by troubling events in the rest of the world: Some intelligence analysts project that the Syrian civil war could go on for a decade; it’s only taken South Sudan two years to go from nationhood to civil war; and the uptick in violence in the Mid-East (Iraq and Lebanon) and unrest in Turkey may be the harbinger of of difficult times ahead.

As we leave the holiday season behind, I was struck by one item in last week’s news:  Package delivery companies FedEx and UPS and online retailer Amazon encountered major problems in keeping their guaranteed-delivery-by-Christmas promises. I wonder if this will this prompt Darrell Issa to hold a hearing.