Just a note to people who think it is clever to be pessimistic: It's not.

[Zynx]

There are a lot of people who think it makes them smart to be chronically cynical, skeptical, and pessimistic. It doesn't. Even those of you who are well-intentioned and believe that scaring people about negative consequences will make them work harder have a fundamental misunderstanding of human psychology. People don't respond best to fear. They respond best to hope. Between the carrot and the stick, people do respond most effectively to the carrot. Giving people the hope to keep fighting is much more effective than giving them the concern that if they don't keep fighting that all is lost.

In a tangible sense, if you are one of the morons who believes that you should yell and scream about how every one to two point move in the polls means you should tell people we are on the verge of losing the election you are not helping. You might think you are, but what you are doing instead is you are demoralizing. This isn't an issue of overconfidence. Democrats are optimistic because they genuinely feel good about the future and what Senator Obama and a Democratic majority can bring to this country. Trying to tell them that they are full of it is not constructive at all. What's more is that you are wrong.