The thing with feathers

"The challenges we face today cannot be met with timid actions or bitter words; our challenges will be overcome with optimism and resolve and confidence in the ideals of America."

— President George W. Bush, Oct. 10, 2003

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
— President Vaclav Havel

The White House is currently engaged on a PR campaign to convince the American people that the occupation in Iraq is "a lot better than you probably think." The notion they're peddling here is that the (evil, nastly, liberal) media tend to exaggerate the negative aspects of a story — so they emphasize the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq more than they do, say, the start of Iraq's new school year.

I've juxtaposed the two quotes above because it seems to me that where Havel is hopeful, but not an optimist, Bush is an optimist, but has no hope. The latter is primarily concerned with perception, the former with reality.

This is why Havel is generally trustworthy and courageous, while Bush is generally upbeat.