  At large virtuality $Q^2$, the coupling to the vector meson production
channels provides us with a natural explanation of the surprisingly large cross
section of the neutral pion electroproduction recently measured at Jefferson
Laboratory, without destroying the good agreement between the Regge pole model
and the data at the real photon point. Elastic rescattering of the $\pi^0$
provides us with a way to explain why the node, that appears at $t\sim -0.5$
GeV$^2$ at the real photon point, disappears as soon as $Q^2$ differs from
zero.
