The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Imagine for a moment that during the heat of a United States presidential election campaign, one of the candidates openly admitted that he or she was an atheist.
What do you think would happen to their campaign?
Well, if that scenario would have happened until a couple of elections, it would have created a negative impact on the image of the candidate.
The campaign team had to completely change the direction and strategy of the campaign, trying to fix that open mistake from the candidate. One of the first actions could have been that the candidate offers apologies and tried to explain that his statement was a misunderstanding and what he really wanted to convey was"......" stating his formal explanation.
If in teh recent campaign or the next campaign, a candidate openly admitted he or she is an atheist, the reaction in young and middle-aged audiences could be different. They are more tolerant and open to hearing something like that. Older generations probably think differently and could reject that candidate. But younger and new audiences are losing interest in religion and would have no problem in expressing their sympathy to a candidate that openly and honestly could reveal his true personality, not trying to hypocritical, trying to appeal to the masses.