There is a thin line between optimism and self-deception.
In her first conference speech as Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson crossed it.
Her party is on the up thanks a string of defections and a surge in new members.
There is also a possibility that after the next election they will hold the balance of power.
But Swinson risked losing a battle with reality with her claim they were on course to be the next government.
This was more dreamland than I have a dream.
To nobody's surprise the party's hatred of Brexit formed the bulk of her conference address.
You can hardly blame her for milking this when the Lib Dems have finally found a policy that clearly separates them from Labour and the Tories.
It was when she roamed into other areas that Swinson faltered.
There were lots of bold claims, none more so than her insistence she will be the next Prime Minister, but almost nothing on how she achieve these lofty ambitions.
Pollyanna comes across as more grounded than Swinson when she talked about her vision for a country were “every single person is valued and included” and “every baby born is given the love they need to face the word with confidence.”
There were worthy promises to improve mental health provision, to build more youth centres and to tackle knife crime yet no acknowledgement of the vandalism which took place under the Coalition government of which she was a part.
More than 760 youth centres were closed when David Cameron and Nick Clegg were running the country, mental health spending fell by eight per cent between 2010 and 2014 and 20,000 police officers were cut.
Whole chapters of the Coalition years were pulped by Swinson in the most shameless re-writing of history since Leon Trotksy was airbrushed from a photo by Joseph Stalin.
You can understand why Swinson wanted to draw a line under the Coalition years given how her party was routed in the 2015 general election.
So it was unfortunate her plan for a wellbeing budget that measured happiness rather than GDP was first suggested by Cameron in his “let sunshine win the day” phase.
People flock to Bournemouth to build sandcastles on the beach.
Swinson built them in the sky.
