Biden and the optics of the mask

Joe Biden leads the polls in most swing states, and it has been speculated by some liberal and left wing
pundits that he will win by landslide in this years elections. This seems to eerily mirror the situation
three years ago when Hilary Clinton was in Biden’s position and a simple, effortless victory was on the
books. What actually happened is the stuff of nightmares for some and somber reading and
retrospection for others. Joe Biden’s election campaign seems to have done little of the said
retrospection during these past few months and may repeat the mistakes made by Hilary Clinton’s
campaign three years ago.

What Joe Biden specifically and his campaign managers, specifically, are forgetting is that most of the
people they are targeting in their ads and their rhetoric are already leaning towards Biden. Hilary did the
same thing three years ago, and appeared to connect with only those voters that had left leaning views.
If we watch any of Biden’s ads and listen to his speeches, he seems to be obsessed with talking about
values and views that he shares with left leaning, and predominantly liberal voters. Trump and his media
savvy campaign managers will pick up on this during the coming weeks and he will be lambasted in the
media if he does not change his ways.

It can be safely said that at this moment, if things continue the way they are going, if, and that is a big
“if”, Donald Trump loses his reelection bid; it will have more to do with Trumps bungling of affairs in epic
proportions and less with Joe Biden’s election campaign and swaying of voters. In a nutshell, for trump
to lose he will have to botch up his reelection campaign so much that some of his voter base either stays
at home, or some of them feel so shafted that they vote for Biden. In both cases Biden will not figure in
the picture.

One simple thing that Biden’s campaign neglects is the optics. They, along with the left wing media, are
quick to make fun of trump for simple things that they consider to be worthy of jest, like for example his
inability, or as some would put it, weakness, of drinking water with both hands. This gives Trump the
opening to counter them in front of thousands of his supports as he did in his first campaign rally last
month.

What the Biden campaign does not do is look at the optics of their own work. Take for example the
mask Joe Biden wears. It is black, and covers the bottom part of his face completely. While it may have
many practical uses, which at this moment are perhaps known only to Biden and his campaign
managers, the optics of wearing such a face covering is early, to say the least. Joe Biden can change this
easily, but refuses to do so, or rather, they echo chamber that he works with may not even know about
this, or may not even have realized this. This kind of blind spot can leave them reeling when Trump
capitalizes on this, and it will not take much; a single tweet from the President will be enough to do the
damage, and by then it will be too late to change.

If Biden was concerned about the optics of wearing N95 masks, which are being used by doctors and
health care professionals in their front line struggle against Covid-19, he should have opted for a royal
blue face mask, with a simple logo emblazoned on it. If we look at vice President Pence, his mask is spot
on. Trivial details like this may not be picked up by the people who are around a candidate, for in their
minds he can do no wrong, and no matter what happens, they will vote for him in the coming election.
However, people who manage his campaign should take note of such seemingly trivial details that can
be used by the opponents and take measures to remedy them at once. A blue mask is not something
that is out of reach of Joe Biden, rather the only reason that he is wearing a black mask is that no one
has had the forethought to take in the broader picture of the campaign and its optics.

A person wearing a black mask appears intimidating and aggressive, and no matter what the political
rhetoric he puts forth during his speech, his first impression is not good. Swing voters, who may take a
look at the first three or four minutes of a Biden speech will feel intimidated by his mask and may not
even listen to what he has to say. In the end it is simple things like this that matter. Hilary Clinton may
claim till the end of times that the election of 2016 was lost due to Russian interference, but the buck
stops with her campaign, for they are the ones who provided them with the ammunition to use against
them. Each and every thing that Trump campaign used against Hilary Clinton came from Hilary and her
office.

Biden has the daunting task of not only being right all the time, but also of avoiding even simple
mistakes that can be sued by trump, for he is the one who is trying to swing voters, and no matter what
the left leaning media says, Trump is not as unpopular as they have portrayed him to be. He enjoys vast
and deep rooted support among the voters of many swing states and thanks to the goldfish memory of
the common voter, he will be able to drum up even more support during the crucial last 9 weeks of his
reelection bid. Biden on the other hand, has the uphill task of not only appeasing his left leaning
supporters, but also converting some of the right wing voters to vote for him, just to keep trump out of
office, and he is not helping himself appearing as an intimidating black mask wearing old man
everywhere he goes.

Joe Biden needs to change his mask and to make sure that the people around him do not cocoon
themselves in an echo chamber where everything is going as planned and Trump is in for a trouncing in
the elections as shown by polls. Polls are never accurate and no matter what the media say, trump is not
out for the count. He will be swinging hard during the last weeks of the campaign and he will use
whatever ammo Biden provides for him, and may even go as far as to manufacture some ammo as well.
With an opponent this ruthless, giving off an air of intimidation by wearing a black mask that is off
putting to almost every person who watches, Biden is shooting himself in the foot. He will have to
change his ways soon, for trump will come out swinging and if Biden continues to ignore the optics of his
campaign, he stands to lose the greatest race of his life, for in the end the only thing that matters is
getting the votes.