A quick-and-dirty jobs program would also have given hard-pressed Americans tangible grounds for optimism, which can matter more than macroeconomic numbers in awakening the confidence that economists say is crucial to a recovery.
There are other, more tangible reasons for optimism too: available for the first time this season, Diego Alves not only gives Valencia a superb goalkeeper but the leadership they have been sorely lacking.
But after fears at the highest level this summer that slow progress could doom an agreement in Paris, a sense of relief, if not optimism, was tangible in Rabat.
"There is reason for optimism -- if not real tangible signs".
Instead, the optimism is an almost tangible thing, the joie de vivre obvious.
But other administration officials acknowledged that her optimism was based less on tangible evidence than on a belief that China would not want to end up diplomatically isolated.
Mothers reported moderate to high levels of all components of personal social cohesion (trust, reciprocity, optimism, sense of belonging, and tangible support).
"We're marrying 'Go forth' with something very tangible," Mr. Sweeny said, by grounding the upbeat optimism of the theme with the gritty realism provided by the Braddock settings.
Optimism filled the air, the almost tangible hope that peace would eventually prevail and the destructiveness of humanity would end.
Stepping blithely across a classic no-no line for the military, he wrote a well-placed op-ed in the Washington Post as General Johnnie-on-the-spot, plugging "tangible progress" in Iraq and touting "reasons for optimism".
