   An utterance of (9) asserts that there exists a possible world in which Jacques Chirac is a member of the Socialist party, which he in fact is not. Given the deep connection between the speech act of assertion and speaker’s belief, an utterance of (9) expresses the counterfactual belief about Chirac that he could have been a Socialist.  Unlike an utterance of (9), an utterance of (10) is ambiguous. On one reading, it has the same truth-conditions as does an utterance of (9) and it serves to express the same belief. Alternatively, an utterance of (10) says of someone who is in fact a Socialist, and who therefore is not Chirac, that he could have been elected president in 2002.