Meaning of ‘hopes with more opportunism than conviction’

Meaning of ‘hopes with more opportunism than conviction’

The passage below is from The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree.

The bookmobile soon became as familiar a sight throughout the United States as the mobile library in rural England, driving into small communities, once a week on the appointed day, through the middle decades of the twentieth century. In places like Texas, the bookmobile represented the only practical means to meet the needs of citizens spread over a vast, sparsely populated territory. The first Texas bookmobile, in 1930, carried about 1,400 volumes; the New Deal WPA project provided another thirty-three bookmobiles. The bookmobile movement crested in Texas, as elsewhere, in the post-war years. Despite this, the rural library service remained poor, exacerbated by the flight to the cities caused by the growing Texas oil boom. Ironically, it was Cold War anxieties of Soviet technological superiority that spurred a concerted effort to improve library provision in rural areas through the Library Services Act of 1956. As the state librarian put it, one hopes with more opportunism than conviction, ‘In library books, as well as guided missiles, the United States lags behind other countries of the world. An informed, enlightened, intelligent and alert America is really essential to our defense and freedom.’

I cannot get the meaning of the underlined sentence.

My first sense of it is that the author criticizes the state librarian’s remark.

On that logic.

I think that sentence can be paraphrased...

People often say belief based on expediency without any ground to the belief.

So his remark is not from his conviction with any ground but from his interests as a librarian. (He wants more money to flow in library department. He wants his job more secure...)

Is my wild guess right?

Thanks in advance.