So you accept the distinction between the two, but McGovern counts as a what-if, I take it. Okay, I had misunderstood you. So McGovern as president in 1972 is a what-if, but Colin Powell as president in 2010 is a potential, I presume. And all what-ifs are equally unverifiable.
Fine. But we still need to find ways of expressing "could have been" as distinct from "imaginary", even though you subscribe to a philosophy that holds the two to be indistinguishable.
-- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org