"hope for success"

Andrew Card just told Jon Stewart that Cheney said the insurgency was in its last throes because "we all wanted it to be" and "we should hope for success."

You know what, Andy? There's a huge difference between hoping for success and telling yourself you're successful when you're not. Wanting it doesn't make it so.

This White House is mired in self-delusion.

There was a Peanuts comic strip a long time ago. Linus and Charlies Brown have gotten their history tests back, and Linus is clutching his and saying, "I'm afraid to look at it. Oh, I hope I got a good grade. Please, please, please, let it be a good grade."

Charlie Brown says, "You should have done all that hoping and praying when you were studying for the test."

And Linus says, "Hoping and praying should never be confused with working and studying."

And then there's this one (from the unutterably brilliant xkcd):


Someone should have pointed this out to everyone in the administration.