Realistic and Optimistic

I began by thinking I'd pair the first quote with this one:

As for the documentary's "research," a film positioning itself as a scrupulously factual "alternative" to "Fahrenheit 9/11" should not inflate Mr. Bush's early business "success" with Arbusto Energy (an outright bust for most of its investors) or the number of children he's had vaccinated in Iraq ("more than 22 million," the movie claims, in a country whose total population is 25 million).

Frank Rich, Now on DVD: The Passion of the Bush, October 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/arts/03rich.html

On reflection, I think the pairing I've now used above is more to the point -- the Frank Rich business isn't about Bush in person, which weakens it, and besides, it seems to me that the "optimism and realism" conjunction is just too wonderful to miss..