Like any angst filled teenager, Batman isn't sure what he wants to be.We all go through this phase.
Any time Rachel is involved, from slapping him in the face, to almost dying, to dying, he and Alfred beat around the bush. Batman, blah, blah, blah, symbol, blah, blah, blah, inspire good, blah, blah, blah. Then John Bloke comes along, er, I mean Robbin, and it all goes out the window. Now that Dent died, Bruce needs a new sucker to pin his problems onto so he can go live in Italy and eat some spaghetti and drink wine with Cat lady. He'll say anything to inspire people, this guy lied about committing crimes and dying afterall.
Batman should just slap people that question him and say, MY PARENTS ARE DEAD. That's the core of the character right there. Not HOPE, not visions of R. Kelly's "Gotham City" and not RACHELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL IS DEAD. I would have been fine with the explanation becoming Batman simply being Bruce dressing up like a nut job to scare the crap out of criminals because he was afraid of Bats and was bummed out that his parents were killed by crime. That's all you need really. You don't put on a demonic bat cowl with horns and a scalloped cape with the intent of symbols of hope and good, do you?
If he wanted to do that, he should have been called Hopeman in clean, white, glistening armor.