“He’s carrying a masks and canceling the conference,” mentioned Mark McKinnon, who was in control of promoting for President George W. Bush’s re-el
“He’s carrying a masks and canceling the conference,” mentioned Mark McKinnon, who was in control of promoting for President George W. Bush’s re-election marketing campaign in 2004. “That’s a head-snapping reversal for a man who hates to be improper, hates to again down and, worst of all, hates to be perceived as weak.”
The canceling of the Florida conference would seem, for now, to additionally play to the Democrats’ benefit. Mr. Biden and his aides not have to fret that his scaled-down digital acceptance speech would look small and foolish subsequent to a full-blown speech by Mr. Trump, as Republicans had as soon as hoped.
And the Democrats reduce their conference methodically and with no drama and little discover, calibrating to the worsening pandemic and to the cautions of medical professionals in opposition to massive gatherings. In contrast, Mr. Trump and his occasion stumbled into this resolution, an extended and messy course of that included a last-minute swap of the conference to Florida from North Carolina.
The chaos surrounding the conference planning mirrored the chaos that surrounded decision-making on many points within the White Home, together with Covid-19. Mr. Trump introduced the cancellation initially of his Thursday coronavirus briefing, with no actual plan about what, if something, the Republicans would do in its stead.
“The Republicans now have a month to place collectively a distant conference and the Democrats had a three-month head begin,” Ms. Fowler mentioned. ”And so they have wasted some huge cash. It type of reinforces the competence issues that this administration has been coping with.”
Mr. Trump, who has lengthy been a grasp of images, had been hoping to attract a distinction with Mr. Biden, downplaying the seriousness of the virus as he pushed to open cities, maintain large rallies and collect for conventions just like the one he wished in Jacksonville. His stance recalled the lengthy historical past of Republicans portraying themselves as unbending, resilient and self-sufficient — the purported occasion of energy. (It additionally recalled the swagger with which Mr. Trump approached his actual property dealings when he was a developer in New York.)
“The Trump technique was to marketing campaign because the sturdy man,” Mr. McKinnon mentioned. Whereas Mr. Biden was hidden “in a masks in a basement he could be stepping maskless into adoring crowds at a packed conference.”