US election 2020: Stark contrast between Trump and Biden campaigns as election day nears

At the White House it’s all a bit scary faces and scream mask and then there are the Halloween decorations.

But all joking aside, both sides are desperately trying to dodge the October surprise - which in different guises has thrown many a campaign off track.

For the Democrats, the horrors of 2016 lurk around every opinion poll.

Maybe there is a little secret squeal of delight when the latest assessment is made but no one is sharing that publicly.

This is a party which has had four years to reflect on seizing defeat from the jaws of victory and they don’t want to go through that particular hell again.

The Biden campaign is a quiet, restrained affair compared to the high octane Trump events but they are banking on that being the way to go.

A safe, calm campaign at a time of national crisis.

ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore reports from Lancaster, Pennsylvania at the beginning of the 'frenetic' final campaigning week

Joe Biden is trading on the appeal of an old style steady, reliable, you know what you get kind of politics.

It may be delivering for him but there’s no way you’ll catch him or any of his team acknowledging that.

There is a part of me which wonders if, every now and again, in darkened rooms behind locked doors with phones on airplane mode those very sensible staffers grab each other by the shoulders and jump up and down, doing silent screams as they dare to dream.

Give it another few days and maybe Joe and Jill will.

Maybe secretly they already are.

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