Almost 100 years ago, Rudyard Kipling wrote a tribute to Obama

[hvn_nbr_2]

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

[Democrats_win]

That's him.

[ailsagirl]

1. Wonderful! One of my favorites... thanks for posting!!

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools...

[BrklynLiberal]

2. That would be great on an Obama T-shirt!!! his face on one side and that poem on the other

[BklynChick]

3. k/r

[NightWatcher]

4. I knew that it would be "If"... unless you were a loon, then it'd be Rikki Tikki Tavi

I dont see Obama as a mongoose

[Frustratedlady]

5. I don't know how many times I've thought of that piece when listening to Barack...

He has the coolest, most level-headed way of thinking, it is amazing. I have always wondered if it is in his makeup or if he has learned to be patient and unruffled from the struggles in his young life.

He is an amazing man, and this piece fits him to the point that it is eerie and gives me goosebumps.

Bless both Barack and Michelle, as well as their beautiful daughters. They belong in the White House.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. I suspect that he learned that "patient...unruffled" way on basketball courts. nt