11/03/2020 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/03/2020 6:00 AM
A sea of red caps awaits Donald Trump on an airport runway;
a symphony of horns sounds in a parking lot
by Joe Biden.
The stage is part of the message in these elections, and the rallies of the candidates have told the story of two diametrically opposed campaigns.
The president has followed his 2016 script, defying pandemic-related precautions and being fawned over by overflowing crowds at more than 50 rallies since June.
His rival has adhered to
the recommendations
of the experts, scheduling far fewer events and avoiding any crowding among the public.
This contrast has marked the dynamics of an unprecedented campaign, in which Trump mocked his opponent for "not leaving the basement" of his house while Biden accused the president of being irresponsible, for scheduling rallies whose attendees are "as crowded as possible. , risking "to contract covid-19.
After three months confined to the White House and criticized for his management of the pandemic, Trump in June insisted on returning to his safe place, to the place where he has felt most comfortable since he came to power:
the podium of some rallies
where thousands of people scream that they want four more years with him.
Perhaps because his first pandemic mass toilet took place in a semi-empty Oklahoma stadium, his campaign soon identified a scenario that would not disappoint Trump again, the runways of airports across the country.
Since then, the imposing Air Force One
has taken to the asphalt of each key state a Trump hungry for attention
, who in one of those acts joked that he loved the new format, because he could get to and from the sites without interacting too much with the voters he seeks to convince.
Not even the covid-19 could with that addiction of the president, and barely paused his agenda for twelve days when he contracted the disease that has threatened his re-election.
"I feel so powerful," said
Trump when he returned to the campaign in mid-October in Florida, where thousands of people were waiting for him crowded and with few masks, the use of which is not mandatory in the president's rallies.
The president's busy schedule is almost identical to the one he had in 2016: until his last rally before the elections is scheduled for this Monday in the same city where he closed the campaign four years ago, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In each act,
Trump tries to revive the magic
of that other campaign that brought him to power against all odds, and despite four years in the White House, he continues to present himself as the rule-breaking insurgent, while profiling Biden as part of the "swamp" that eats away at Washington from within.
"I'm not a politician, and I don't always follow Washington's rules," he stressed last Friday in Wisconsin.
That message ignites his most loyal followers, but it is not clear that it is enough to convince the rest of voters that he needs to achieve reelection.
His rallies can even "hurt
" him, according to Mark Peterson, a politics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Voters who are not unconditional to Trump -especially those who need it most, such as women in the suburbs- see a president disconnected from reality, violating the guidelines of his own government and acting irresponsibly," Peterson told Efe .
Biden, prudent
Biden's team is confident that this will be so, and his campaign strategy is designed to illustrate his message that Trump has been reckless in his handling of the pandemic, while his Democratic rival
would be guided by science.
The former vice president took much longer than his opponent to resume the events in person after the pandemic: it was not until September that he began to schedule them regularly, and his first rallies
gathered few people,
separated in circles painted on the ground to ensure distance.
Then he decided to imitate the classic drive-in format, and schedule rallies that attendees could drive to in their cars, park at a distance from the rest, and listen to Biden, his running mate, Kamala Harris, or former President Barack Obama with the windows. open or over the radio.
The applause was replaced by honking the horn, and
Trump was quick to laugh at the new system
.
"People in vehicles, I don't understand it. It's a tiny audience, you hear a couple of horns and that's it," he said during a rally on October 24.
Biden's campaign is not concerned with criticism from the president, but some Democrats are concerned that the contrast with Trump may reinforce the idea that their candidate has low energy: Often, the president had several rallies in a day
while the His rival's public agenda was empty.
Ahead in the polls for months, Biden has opted to travel sporadically to key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, send Harris to farther afield like Arizona and Texas, and let the president wear himself out in his constant rallies,
which no longer attract as much media coverage as in 2016.
"The more Trump speaks, the more votes he loses. He is
going to be the first president to have lost his office for speaking,"
a Democratic strategist, Chris Kofinis, told NBC News last week.
Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, defended at a press conference in October that at least the president speaks directly to thousands of voters, while his rival spends much of his funds on "television commercials."
"This is a two-season story
," Stepien said at the time.
The outcome, the verdict on the winning strategy, is being written by millions of Americans these days.
Source: EFE
PB
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