I open Impromptus today with a note about Obama’s Year Zero-ness. You are well familiar with this aspect of his thinking, or affect: Everything begins with him; nothing really counted, or was worth a darn, until he came along. He said to the breathless world gathered at the U.N., “For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months.”

A reader of ours sent me a note, pointing out something I hadn’t thought of: Obama got the number wrong; he had been ensconced for eight months — almost exactly — not nine. And if Bush had made this mistake, there would have been a rash of jokes: “He’s having trouble with his counting — must be missing a finger or two.” Etc.

This is not the most important point in the world. But it is a point. And if we confined ourselves to the most important points in the world — we would say a lot less!