US: In a tight presidential race, it was perhaps inevitable that President George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry would one day fight a duel in a divided town with an undecided mayor in a battle-ground state.
It happened yesterday when the two candidates addressed gatherings within a few blocks and within minutes of each other in Davenport, Iowa, a town of 100,000 people on the banks of the Mississippi.
Mr Bush spoke about the economy at a rally at LeClaire Park, and Mr Kerry hosted an economic round-table at the River Center, just three blocks away.
The two candidate are running neck and neck in the mid-west state, according to a poll yesterday from the American Research Group which shows them with 46 per cent support each, with 2 per cent for Ralph Nader if he runs in Iowa.
Republicans used the rallies to canvas for signatures to get Mr Nader on the Iowa ballot and lessen Mr Kerry's chances of winning there.
And bank robbers used the presence of the candidates to enrich themselves, cleaning out three Davenport banks while the police were at full stretch dealing with the traffic disruption and protecting the political guests.
While the Republican and Democratic hopefuls addressed the economy, the dominant issue in the state is now the war on terror and in Iraq - which has cost the lives of 14 Iowa soldiers, including four from the Davenport area, according to the Des Moines register.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Kerry narrowly ahead of Bush nationwide, with 49 per cent of likely voters, compared to 47 per cent for Bush, representing a six-point swing in Kerry's favour since the Democratic Party convention in Boston last week.
Some 12,000 people turned out for Mr Bush in Davenport, according to the Davenport Leader web site, while a no less enthusiastic crowd of 250 business and union leaders cheered on Mr Kerry at the River Center for the invitation-only round-table. Mr Bush spoke on education, healthcare, agriculture and the war on terror, each time emphasising his new slogan: "The country is turning the corner and not looking back."
Mayor Charlie Brooke of Davenport was at the Bush rally but told the president he had not decided how to vote, as he thought Mr Kerry had not connected with ordinary people, while he did not like Vice President Dick Cheney.
Mr Kerry, who has been drawing huge crowds across the mid-west, made fun of Mr Bush's metaphor. "He could come here for a great discussion about America's future if he were really willing to just turn a corner" and come around to the River Center.
The Democratic candidate is being hurt by aggressive Bush campaign ads in the mid-west. On his way to Iowa, Mr Kerry's bus stopped at the town of Shullsburg, where a man asked him about the Bush accusation that he voted against funding body armour for US troops. Mr Kerry said that was a distortion of his record, to which the man replied: "It's killing you in this area." Mr Kerry turned back and said, "I'd never leave those troops without their body armour, you know that." The previous evening in Dallas, Texas, Mr Bush had emphasised conservative themes in a speech to 2,500 Catholics at a conference of the Knights of Columbus attended by Cardinal Edward Egan of New York and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington.
He received standing ovations from the men's fraternal organisation for his opposition to gay marriage and late-term abortion.