Hello all, and welcome to this slightly late US election diary for this past week. We are publishing a day late on purpose however, as we have had a lot on the go here over the past few days. You really get the sense that we are on the home run of this thing – and at this stage, it could be either way.

Early in Kamala Harris’ campaign, she faced criticism for not sitting down for a one-on-one interview - with anyone.

Well, this week, that changed in a big way.

There was The View, 60 Minutes, Howard Stern’s radio show, and a popular podcast here called Call Me Daddy.

She even made a late-night appearance, sitting down for an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (by pure misfortune, my fiancé and I happened to be across the road when she was leaving and got stuck behind her motorcade and crowds of supporters).

Has this rapid-fire round of media interviews shut up the critics? Well, no.

In several of these appearances – but perhaps most noticeably on 60 Minutes – Harris appeared to not directly answer some quite specific appearances, despite the reporter repeatedly asking her. For example, she wouldn’t say in that interview if she considered Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to be a close ally.

The New York Times published a midweek piece described it as the “bob and weave.”

US Presidential election campaigns can raise some eye-watering amounts of money, but nothing has ever come close to what it’s been reported that Kamala Harris has raised since she took over the party’s leadership - US$1 billion in two months.

For comparison, Joe Biden’s 2020 election campaign raised about $1 billion (NZ$1.6 billion) in total.

While Donald Trump has also raised enough money to build almost two of Christchurch’s shiny new stadiums, he is still hundreds of millions of dollars behind where Harris is at.

Where does all this money go you ask?

Well, a huge amount goes to outreach – TV, radio, newspaper, social media ads, events, door-to-door work...and perhaps the most hated...

Despair? Doritos? Damage control? It’s been super interesting looking at how both Republicans and Democrats are engaging with the population through the much-loved method of robocalling. For the sake of this article, I’m also throwing the “personalised” emails and texts into the same category because I’ve noticed both have wildly different styles.

Let’s start with the Republicans, who put out regular newsletters, texts and fundraising emails – multiple times a day. The language can be, I would suggest, aggressive.

The Democrats, for their part have gone for another approach. Optimism? Kindness? Nope. More like despair...check out this text I got today from the Harris Campaign (and a note that I have never supported any American political campaign, as I am not an American...and they have also personalised it to the area I live in too).

Of course there is always the food option.

Both sides equally bizarre? Let me know your take.

I wish I had made that up, but no. As the USA dealt with several recent deadly hurricanes, Republican lawmaker Majorie Taylor Greene posted this on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As you can imagine, there was a strong response, including from members of her own party.

One Republican lawmaker is also reported to have described her views as “loony toons’.