In Impromptus today, I tell a story about “waiting for O” — having to wait more than a half-hour this Wednesday for President Obama’s motorcade to pass. I was four blocks from home. (On foot.) Could not move an inch, by orders of the police. A bewildering and, in a way, instructive experience.

Several readers have written in with their own stories of waiting for O — and waiting for Biden too! Not just in big cities such as New York and Chicago, but also in less likely places, such as rural North Carolina. They have not written in with political axes to grind; they have just told their stories, and described the huge frustration involved.

Let us stipulate, as I do in my column, the all-too-real needs of security. But let us also take a pledge: If you or I should ever be elected president or vice president, we’ll inconvenience “the people” as little as possible.