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MELBOURNE - Victorian Premier Steve Bracks says the Prime Minister slipped up under pressure in attacking US presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Prime Minister John Howard said on Sunday that a victory by Senator Obama at next year's United States election would be a win for terrorists.
"If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," he said.
Today, Mr Bracks said he was surprised Mr Howard made the comment.
"I think it is a slip, it is showing a bit of pressure, I guess that's there currently in a federal election year," Mr Bracks told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"I think you wait and see who is the successful candidate for election and who's going to be the next president of the United States of America and you deal with them on that basis, you deal with the elected officials.
"To get involved in, not even the race for the presidency but the race for the Democratic nomination is really a couple of steps down and quite remarkable.
"I would have thought that someone as long serving as the prime minister would know that is a problem, to get involved with an internal political party nomination particularly for the United States of America."
- AAP
