If

Passing through a decent high school literature class creates a high probability you'll run across the Rudyard Kipling poem, If. Most people never give it a second thought. Some may remember a stanza or two. (The full version is here.) But I'm thinking that Barack Obama has a copy pasted to the mirror so that he can consult it every morning while shaving.

It's really one of the few things that explains his baffling reticence to confront his dastardly political opponents. What follows are select lines from the poem which might appeal to the President...and some thoughts on the same:

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 allowances for their doubting too...

In other words, above all else, keep cool. Descending to their level is a sign of weakness--even if their words and deeds are weakening you more than you could ever do to yourself.

If you can wait and not be tired of 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...

Well, I'm sure there's a moral message here, maintaining civility and all that. But that last phrase is a killer: could it be that Mr. Obama believes that simply opening his mouth will, de facto, make him look too wise? I mean, how could others not pale in comparison? Mr. President, trust me, the Tea Partiers are robbing you of your apparent wisdom...while you maintain your modesty.

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...

Yes, it's true--Kipling was prescient enough to foresee the creation of Fox News. You may have no choice but to suffer the knaves...but keep the faith in his inspiration--stoop, stoop, stoop and build! Before it's too late!

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!"

Hold on, Mr. President. Show that heart and nerve and sinew. You can prove beyond a doubt that you're better than they are--if you simply lace up the gloves and fight.