One of the Great First Paragraphs of All-Time

One of my favorite parts of Albert Camus's The Plague (which I haven't read since high school so forgive me if I'm messing this up) is one character's obsession with writing the best first sentence that has ever been written for a novel. We (and by we I mean I) all long to be Dickens or Ginsberg on this front, so I appreciate it when a zinger like the paragraph below starts what may otherwise be a mediocre article (I'll finish reading it when I'm done posting). Enjoy.

At long last, my people have an answer to the question "When will we have a Jewish president?" The answer, it turns out, is "Not before we have a black president." I imagine that all ethnic groups play this game of "when will one of ours get there?" (The question is especially common among Jews, since we're sort of white and used to success at other jobs—law, medicine, swimming.) But now that a half-African man with Muslim ancestors has defeated, for the presidency, an Episcopalian with a Roman numeral after his name, the bookmakers have to move the odds for all of us.