President George W. Bush used a campaign rally in Janesville, Wisconsin on 24 September 2004 to attack Democratic challenger John Kerry for casting doubt on Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, arguing that questioning an ally's credibility disqualifies someone from leading the country.
The criticism came a day after Bush welcomed Allawi to the White House. The Iraqi prime minister had offered an upbeat account of his country's situation, minimized the scale of the insurgency, and pledged to hold national elections in January 2005 as planned.
Kerry rejected that assessment, noting that Allawi had contradicted his own recent warnings about the pace of militant infiltration into Iraq. He described the White House visit as a public relations exercise designed to put a favorable face on the administration's Iraq policy.
Kerry also broke with Bush over the war's direction, saying conditions were not improving and that a change of course was needed. Bush insisted his approach remained the right one.
The Wisconsin stop was Bush's seventh visit to the state in 2004. He was set to travel to his Texas ranch afterward to prepare for the first of three televised debates with Kerry, scheduled for 30 September.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in September 2004, in its own words.