From the White House, Katie Zacharia was a disaster.

This perhaps wouldn’t matter so much if the President wasn’t about to get caned in the midterms.

It might not matter so much if the job wasn’t so important. It might not matter so much if all the others had been as disastrous as Ms Zacharia.

"Zachbot" is what one outlet called her.

Outside of letting the world know the Greek grifter had been sacked, she said nothing, knew nothing and left.

It's hard, and not hard, to see why she got the job. It's not hard because she is female and you could describe her as "pretty".

That of course under normal circumstances is not something we should be dabbling in, but these aren't normal circumstances and the Trump job machine produces an overtly disproportionate number of quite pretty woman in public rolls.

But it is hard, if you discount the looks bit, to see why a Scott Jennings didn’t get it.

Jennings is a CNN regular for the Republican side of the equation. He has worked with both Bushes and with Mitt Romney. He is experienced, he is bright and he is very articulate. If they were skills you were after and you had a “skill off" between Jennings and Zacharia, Scott is your man.

If you insist on looks, Katie Miller and Monica Crowley were in the running and Alina Habba, his lawyer, would have been if she hadn't bailed early.

The trouble with newbies is they're compared to the others, and the others included everyone from Kayleigh McEnany to Karoline Leavitt, to Sean Spicer.

Spicer was useless. Anthony Scaramucci, who technically wasn’t the Press Secretary but the Communications Director, was good but short lived because he got a case of the guilts. Read his book, it's good.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was so good she went on to be a governor, although the lineage might have helped.

But the point is, as much as you might want to make fun of this job and the Trump White House, the truth is Leavitt was amazing. Forget politics – in her job, in selling the message and knowing her stuff, she was world class, if not in a class of her own. McEnany wasn’t far behind.

Trump has picked some brilliant operators. Unless Zacharia was having a meltdown, or Jennings was offered the job but turned it down, Trump will be losing the midterms and a press secretary by the end of November.

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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.

The campaign: 6/10

Was this the week that we got debated out? One too many or two too many? And can you believe there are at least two more still to come?

Gangs: 1/10

May turn out to be, if not a defining moment, certainly a moment some could look back on with regret. New Zealanders hate gangs and their criminal violence. Labour needed it like a hole in the head.

Diesel: 2/10

As in the deal between Trump and Putin. It's about 10 days worth of domestic demand in America. Nothing Trump touches right now looks anything close to slick.

The All Blacks: 9/10

As fast, fiery, and complete a performance as you would ever be lucky enough to see.

Tourists: 8/10

Stats this week confirm we are officially back from Covid. Way too slow to get there, but the growth is real and it's on.

LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

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Is it too far-fetched to ask two things:

1) Whether the campaign turned dramatically against Labour yesterday.

2) If within a 24-hour period, whatever chance they might have thought they had is now blown to smithereens.

The Greens want to fund gangs. They are unapologetic about hanging with gangs and they fail to accept the simple premise that this puts them so far outside what you would loosely call "mainstream New Zealand". It will most likely see whatever voters there are wavering between National and Labour scarper back to National.

Then if that wasn’t bad enough, David Seymour of all people decides he can live with the Opportunity Party better than he can live with being in Opposition.

Is it too big a stretch to ask whether this is not some unbelievable self-implosion by the Greens? Almost a self-sabotage attempt? Or is it more likely a group carried away by their perceived polling success that they can say and do anything they like and to hell with the consequences?

It's certainly an insight into the dynamics of the Greens. As normal as Chlöe Swarbrick might like to paint them, she looked lost, bewildered, and unable to respond in a way a normal leader would i.e. pull some of the madness into line, reject some allegations, cancel some perceptions, and stamp down some rampant madness.

She looked bereft of leadership skill.

Can we ask whether Seymour is the key to the Luxon turnaround re: Opportunity? If David can, maybe Luxon can too.

Put the two events of a singular day together and the election is over.

The math was always easier for the incumbents anyway; National on 30%, NZ First and ACT on 10% each, that's 50%. Add Opportunity and it's over an hour after the polls close.

Obviously, there are three weeks left. But in a spectacularly boring campaign, where the debates sent you to sleep and Groundhog Day had set in early, out of nowhere came an event that might well have turned the whole thing on its head.

Gangs in New Zealand are abhorrent. We hate them and we hate what they do. The Greens and the Māori Party want to hang with them, give them our money and rub them in your face.

It's Hipkins' worst nightmare.

His two partners, who are already fringe, are going full rogue on a subject that defies left and right. No one backs gangs. There isn't a single vote in them.

October 15th might just be the day Labour kissed it all goodbye.

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