Revisiting Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’

"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

That's maybe the best line from Barack Obama's infamous 2008 "Yes, We Can" speech.

The one that Will.I.Am set to music, with a host of celebrities in black and white earnestly reading the lines with their eyes locked on the camera. Reading the speech again now, it seems naive at best. At worst, it betrays the kind of delusional optimism that came to define the former President's time in public life.