means The public perception or appearance of a situation, especially how a decision or action will be judged regardless of its substance.

from From the Greek 'optikos,' meaning 'of sight,' rooted in 'optos,' 'seen' — the same family that gives us 'optic' and 'optical.' For centuries it lived purely in physics, the science of light and lenses. Then in the late 20th century, American political jargon borrowed it as a metaphor: the 'optics' of a thing became how it would be seen by the public, divorced from its actual merits — appearance studied like a scientist studies light.