Impromptus today is the usual mish-mash, beginning with Ryan Zinke and his special flag. The Interior Department has a secretarial flag. Who knew? Someone did. It is raised when Secretary Zinke enters the building — indicating he is present — and lowered when he leaves. I thought only Queen Liz got this.
In my column, I write, “Kevin Williamson, Jonah Goldberg, and David French visit National Review headquarters in New York only rarely. I’m going to see if we can get some kind of flag to hoist when they’re in town …”
I have an item or two on President Trump, who tweeted, “Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall!”
My comment:
I’m not sure a president ought to be bragging about the plunging of stocks. And bragging that he caused it. A reader of mine wrote, “This affects my 401(k). Am I not an American?”
These are really strange times. What would we conservatives say if a Democratic president bragged about causing stocks to plunge?
For the eight years of Obama, we said, “What if George W. Bush had said this? What if George W. Bush had done this?” For the eight (?) years of Trump, many of us will be saying, “What if a Dem …?”
Speaking of Obama, he has joined Columbia Country Club, in Chevy Chase, Md. — the site of the 1921 U.S. Open. It was won by “Long Jim” Barnes, an Englishman. President Harding was in attendance, and so was Vice President Coolidge. A long while later, Bill Strausbaugh Jr. was the head pro at Columbia. One of the great golf teachers in America, and a golden human being.
Finally, there is this, in Impromptus:
The most representative American state? I’m sure there are stats on this — science — but I’m going seat-of-the-pants: It must be Ohio. Ohio has virtually everything: urban blacks, rural whites (urban whites, rural blacks). It is both northern and southern. Maybe even eastern and western. It is microcosmic, I think.
I always thought that their license-plate slogan — “The Heart of It All” — was justifiable.
Of course, you could make a case for Illinois. And for [name your state] …
What is the most representative American state? The most microcosmic, as I have said? If you have an argument to make, please let me know at jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.