A virtual President

This article about the Speaker of the House is amazing.* I guess it means Nancy Pelosi is the "Virtual President," which means she is as powerful as the President!

It's truly an amazing article.

The contrast with the members of the ancien regime was startling. The (Party Name) of the (Number) Congress are largely (descriptive adjectives.) The white males among the devastated (Party Name) ranks are older and tired looking. As (The New Speaker) prepared to give (possesive adjective ) surprisingly conciliatory opening address, several vanquished (Party Name) committee chairmen -- among them former Foreign Affairs chairman (Congressman) of (State)-- paced the back aisles, pale ghosts of caucuses past. One chose to look at the bright side. As chairman, he said, "you're dealing with a bunch of little rug rats whining about what they want and what they didn't get." Ceding power is "like getting out of the day-care business. All of a sudden, it looks like a good deal." So is (The New Speaker) nanny to the nation? (Pronoun) will certainly get to conciliate and cajole, to deal and dole out, to demand and deliver -- with all the clout of a victorious revolutionary, with all the prestige of a virtual President.

The actual and virtual Presidents prepared for the week with different evocations of political power. (The Actual President) spent the first few days in (State) on vacation. He did not seem like a man with many worries as he (engaged in a manly activity) with four old friends in (a section of his state.) At a local restaurant he chatted up patrons and posed for pictures. Still, he was winsome and a little wistful, enthusiastic about his home state, reluctant about returning to Washington. Referring to birds he had seen earlier, sitting by the hundreds in fields along the road, he said, "I identify with those little ducks out there." Unlike in Washington, he noted, it is illegal in (State) to shoot sitting ducks from the roadway.

Remember this article tomorrow.

*A few minor changes have been made to the article. The names and party affiliations have been ommitted, as have the identities of any individuals mentioned in it. I am not stating what year it was written. Still, obviously it means Nancy Pelosi is now practically the President. Hooray!