The US presidential candidates took their summer vacations earlier this year fully expecting that the Iraq war would remain the ­pivotal election issue when they returned to the campaign trail in September. Instead, the White House hopefuls have found the economy has become the dominant issue.

When General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, presented Congress in September with his assessment of the surge, 35 per cent of voters felt the Iraq war was the top issue in choosing the president, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.