I guess it was said more in wishfulness than in truth.    From Wordnik.com.  [Comments On Don Imus Debacle] Reference

With Germany reeling from Alamein and Stalingrad, it was prone to that "wishfulness" and "yesmanship" that are the cardinal sins of counter-deception.    From Wordnik.com.  [Operation Mincemeat, Operation Heartbreak, and The Man Who Never Was] Reference

The Chilcot inquiry has amply demonstrated the role of "wishfulness" and "yesmanship" in the decision to go to war.    From Wordnik.com.  [Top stories from Times Online]

Urgency and not wishfulness now guide the Highborn's appeal.    From Wordnik.com.  [Running From The Deity]

No, I'm got a pessimistic streak in me along with a dash of Libertarian wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Some people say America wants change. But what makes you think that if there is change, it will be an improvement?] Reference

What I cannot understand is the sheer wishfulness of many current proposals for the Middle East.    From Wordnik.com.  [War for Oil? An Exchange] Reference

Decision makers feel their confidence boosted, barely aware of the wishfulness swirling around them.    From Wordnik.com.  [Magic and Mayhem] Reference

The notion that some disabilities can be made to simply go away is a fiction and almost childish in the wishfulness it conveys.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2007-11-01] Reference

The constant articles in the French press asking, "Is Khe Sanh another Dien Bien Phu?" had a barely concealed wishfulness to them.    From Wordnik.com.  [1968 the Year that Rocked the World]

There was also a "Hoping Lu" when I was in Taiwan -- meaning "Peace"; there must have been some message there about the wishfulness of pacifism.    From Wordnik.com.  [languagehat.com: RENAMING THE HAN.] Reference

The tone was can-do optimistic, avoiding the wishfulness and idealized trappings that so often seem delusional in retrospect in favor of pragmatism.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fortune 's Green Brainstorm] Reference

For all of them, no matter the details of the loss, it's the same: searing loneliness, unexpected isolation, depression, misguided anger and calculated wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Claire Bidwell Smith: Even Though It's a Unique Experience, Losing Someone You Love is Always the Same] Reference

The only time I felt a certain wishfulness was when President Carter became president and he called me about the possibility of becoming the head of the Peace Corps.    From Wordnik.com.  [Landon Lecture] Reference

Those familiar with the CIA's inquiry into the suicide bombing said the operation aimed at al-Zawahri ran afoul of one of the spy game's cardinal perils & ndash; wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Al-Qaeda's No. 2 Has Close Calls With CIA] Reference

I can also understand the wishfulness of those who oversimplify the whole situation by repeating that all we have to do is to mind our own business and keep the nation out of war.    From Wordnik.com.  [State of the Union Address (1790-2001)] Reference

It was in his voice and face, a bitter wishfulness, and I understood of course that he was telling me things, true or not, only because I was here, we were both here, in isolation, drinking.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2010-02-01] Reference

One can lament this “progress” of modern democratic politics, away from rewarding real merit based on past achievement, toward a present-oriented shallowness and a future-oriented wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Something Else?] Reference

Of course, in the DeLillo bit you just quoted, the guy could have been wrong--maybe Elster did have all the intelligence at his fingertips, and his "bitter wishfulness" was pure projection on the narrator's part.    From Wordnik.com.  [An objective, True story] Reference

"Would it?" said he, looking into her face with all the wishfulness of a young lover.    From Wordnik.com.  [Orley Farm] Reference

But he who loved women, and had never won even a wife, was filled with anxious wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Algonquin Legends of New England] Reference

I appreciate the wishfulness inherent in your view of the world - but it is wrong. yeah, to previous poster.    From Wordnik.com.  [Anarchist news dot org - Comments] Reference

While the mother was thus occupied, she kept looking across at her baby, who seemed to be watching her with comical wishfulness.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Lost Trail] Reference

Her eyes were large, full, and dark, and had about them that expression of wishfulness and longing which one may sometimes have remarked in dark eyes.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dred; A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. Vol. I] Reference

She asked her little question with something of the softness of her old manner, with something of the longing loving wishfulness which used to make so many of her questions sweet to her mother's ears.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rachel Ray, volume 2] Reference

Urgency and not wishfulness now guide the Highborn’s appeal.    From Wordnik.com.  [Running from the Deity]

He even supplies the basis of his test: Elster’s “voice and face,” which betray a “bitter wishfulness.”.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2010-02-01] Reference

Or is that just web 2.0 wishfulness?.    From Wordnik.com.  [March « 2008 « BuzzMachine] Reference

And wishfulness in me arose.    From Wordnik.com.  [“I had no cause to be awake.”] Reference

A wishfulness their far condition.    From Wordnik.com.  [“A sickness of this world it most occasions.”] Reference

Olive saw the wishfulness; but she ignored it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Brentons] Reference

Or is this just Western wishfulness?.    From Wordnik.com.  [open Democracy News Analysis - Comments] Reference

"That's your wishfulness speaking.    From Wordnik.com.  [Time Patrolman]

You take yourself out of "wishfulness" into "observation.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Srinivasan Pillay: The Science of Getting What You Want] Reference