No, they are the equivalent to the president and the VP within the giant alternate reality MMO game that the book focuses on. That's revealed in a brief vignette (that really is the most extreme example in the book of directly pandering to the audience, I'll admit) that explains that nobody really cares much about who…

It's a very fun book. I don't recall any plot holes or weak world building (on the contrary, I thought the world was built just enough to intrigue you while still focusing on the game appropriately), but maybe that's just a testament to me being too distracted by all of the references. And yes, the references are…