Beware of Hope'n'changers

Bashar al Assad, for instance:

Mr. Assad, who turns 48 next week, was never meant to rule. Bashar was the second son, summoned home from his training as an ophthalmologist in Britain in 1994 after his macho older brother, Bassel, died driving his Mercedes-Benz too fast on the Damascus airport road. But even before he inherited the presidency from his father, Hafez, in 2000, Syrians had hoped he would bring change. They even called him “The Hope.”

"The Hope," eh? Sounds strangely familiar.