IN A LAND of six million square miles, 293 million people and 50 states, two rival presidential candidates desperate to avoid bumping into each other should surely have little problem keeping their distance.

Yesterday, however, in one of America’s most extraordinary election-year encounters, President Bush and John Kerry converged at the same time in the same south- eastern corner of one of the country’s least populated states, to strike Davenport, Iowa, with the perfect political storm.

Amid mutual allegations of gatecrashing each other’s campaign event, Mr Bush roared in on Air Force One from his Texas ranch and Mr Kerry in his ten-coach cavalcade descended on a city that hours earlier had witnessed a ferocious night of lightning, but had never seen a spectacle like this.

While Mr Bush spoke to tens of thousands of fervent believers at an outdoor rally on the banks of the Mississippi, setting out his vision for a second term and ridiculing his opponent’s voting record, barely 500 yards away Mr Kerry was addressing business leaders inside the giant RiverCentre, lambasting the President’s economic recklessness.

Referring to Mr Bush’s new slogan — “America has turned the corner” — Mr Kerry, flush from receiving the endorsement of 200 business leaders, immediately began: “President Bush is just a few blocks from here. He should come here for a discussion on America’s future, if he really would just turn the corner.”

The two men left it to their aides, and rival supporters on the streets, to try to explain to a bewildered populace, inundated with squads of Secret Service men, guns bulging from suits and muttering into hidden microphones, just who was to blame for this display of political double-dating.

“Oh, Kerry, definitely. The White House alerted us weeks ago about this,” one Bush campaign worker said. “We only found out about Kerry on Saturday. It’s typical Kerry.”

The Kerry campaign said it was simply a “happy coincidence”, but whether or not they indulged in Machiavellian scheduling arrangements, the dual appearance reflected that the pair have been dogging each other’s footsteps for weeks.

As the politicians made their way through the city in the throng of police, bankrobbers struck three times in a series of raids that were probably no coincidence. “I’m sure they were counting on the fact that we were short-handed, but we weren’t,” Captain David Struckman, of the Davenport police, said. He added that he already had one suspect in custody.

In an extraordinarily close election that many analysts believe will be won or lost in a few swing areas amid a few swing states in the Rust Belt and industrial Midwest, both men have criss-crossed the region in recent days.

On Saturday they came within 20 miles of each other in Pennsylvania, and both see Iowa — which Al Gore won by only 4,000 votes in 2000 — as one of the keys to the White House.

It made for wonderful political theatre. At 10.10am, the precise moment Air Force One was touching down, Mr Kerry visited a group of construction workers. Perhaps he should have worn a hard hat.

Watched by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who spent much of the event wiping building dust from her high-heeled shoes with an aide’s handkerchief, Mr Kerry shook their hands as, within spitting distance, the Bush faithful roared “Four more years!” and “Bush believes in God!” A pick-up truck drove past, emblazoned with graphic pictures of the results of an abortion, and the words: “Kerry and Edwards. A Bloody Team for a Bloody America.”

Mr Bush says he is on a “heart and soul” tour of the nation, and he is trying to skewer Mr Kerry with his legislative opposition to abortion and a constitutional ban on gay marriage at every stop.

Like much of the rest of America, most voters either love or loathe Mr Bush, and the Davenport crowd was no less passionate. Young girls and old men, families and fishermen, had queued since dawn to hear their President, many wearing T-shirts saying “Yes, I believe in God” and “Supporting unborn children”.

As he took the stage an hour later, with local television stations forced to split their screen to accommodate Mr Kerry’s simultaneous event, the roar of the crowd, and Mr Bush’s words magnified through giant loudspeakers, could be heard inside the Massachusetts senator’s economic forum.

Referring to Mr Kerry’s now-infamous vote for and then against an $87 billion (£48 billion) request by Mr Bush to fund postwar Afghanistan and Iraq, and Mr Kerry’s claim that he sees the “complexities” of issues, Mr Bush’s words must have left his opponent’s ears burning.

“There’s nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat,” he declared to wild applause.

Becki Kenton, a bank worker, said: “Two presidential candidates on the same morning. This is pretty cool.”

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