It's always fun when dueling campaign emails arrive in the e.politics inbox only minutes apart, particularly when they're so gently massaging the same issues-of-the-moment. Today's edition: Obama vs. McCain. The weapons: "bitter" vs. "out of touch." The immediate stakes: the contents of thousands of wallets. The long-term stakes: the public perception of each man, and ultimately his electoral fate.

Chris Dodd and Mitt Romney's campaigns sent similar messages to their supporters yesterday.  Both fundraising emails highlighted donors' notes to the campaign, but the ways each campaign asks for money are almost polar opposites.  Dodd's message highlights people who gave $100 or less and suggests a $25 donation, while Romney's message encourages people to forward the notes to your "entire rolodex," and asks for donations of at minimum $80.  Join me to take a look at both of the messages.

Anniversaries and holidays elicit thoughts of family, togetherness, home cookin', and for political candidates, e-mail fundraising. For top-polled 2008 presidential candidates, special days like birthdays, Halloween, and even the anniversary of the day Congress signed off on the War in Iraq, have been used as e-mail themes recently.

If you're on Rudy Giuliani's email list, be warned that you're likely in it for the long haul. If you click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any of Giuliani's emails, you're brought to JoinRudy2008.com, his campaign's website. There appears to be no other way to opt-out of Rudy's emails, save for replying to the emails with removal requests. Aside from annoying, there is the chance that Giuliani's emails are illegal under the CAN-SPAM Act, the federal law regulating unsolicited email communications. Let's take a look at the letter of the law.

Josh Levy's been doing great work covering the competition between candidates to send bulk "personal" emails that seem like the candidate him or herself is firing them off via Blackberry. But I got a note from one of the campaigns today that I just have to hope marks the end of just how far this face-off is going to go.