It's been just another week in the battle for the White House -- full of wild speculation about vice presidential picks, sarcastic asides about celebrities and patriotism and other assorted, miscellaneous pot-shots between the Obama and McCain campaigns.

On Monday alone, the McCain campaign sent out an "updated travel guide" to Sen. Barack Obama's Hawaii vacation and the Democratic National Committee unloaded on Sen. John McCain as "Job-Killing John."

But all through the 2008 presidential primary season, a behind-the-scenes war between the two campaigns has been raging -- a second front, if you will, conducted just outside of public view on reporters' computers and BlackBerries and cell phones, via e-mail and conference call -- to defend a position, spin an issue, and, most importantly, sway public opinion.

This year, to an unprecedented degree, political campaigns are relying on e-mail and cell-phone technology to communicate with the media. There are fact-checking, the obligatory quote, even -- gasp! -- fairly naked attempts to influence coverage with helpful reminders about the other side's mistakes. But the result often deteriorates into high-tech, high-stakes electoral campaign equivalent of a school playground "So's your old man" grudge match.

Let's go to Monday's e-mail trail:

7:01 a.m.: Obama spokesman Bill Burton messages reporters that Mr. Obama would be talking in Albuquerque about a Supreme Court decision that "actually made it harder for women to challenge pay discrimination. A decision John McCain thinks the Supreme Court got right."

7:22 a.m.: The McCain campaign weighs in with a copy of a New York Sun editorial --"Obama's War on Women, II," which, among other things, calls claims by Mr. Obama's advisers "insulting."

Mr. Obama's riposte doesn't arrive until 2:25 p.m., featuring the potentially explosive message header, "Does McCain Have a Woman Problem?" which actually turns out to be a very long e-mail that compares Mr. McCain's positions on women's issues with Mr. Obama's.

It's all pretty tame stuff compared with the previous Monday, when the McCain campaign e-mailed the first of a series of messages headlined "Barack Obama's Hawaii Travel Guide," complete with visuals: There's the Illinois senator in sunglasses a Hawaiian lei, a map of the islands, and what appears to be a moonrise over the Pacific.

Various media reports about Mr. Obama's vacation itinerary are cited: "early morning jogs along the beach," dinner at a "top" Honolulu restaurant and a round of golf, where, the campaign added helpfully, "the course features unparalleled vistas of the Ko'olau Mountain Range, challenging holes accented by inviting water hazards, cavernous sand traps, undulating topographical conditions and several signature holes."

Ouch.

All of this is a far cry from 2004, when Howard Dean used the Internet to raise money, "and people went, 'Ooh, that's so cool," recalled Robert Thompson, director of the Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

"But 2004 is the Ancient Regime compared to this year. The BlackBerry existed then, but it's gone through about three generations of new technology since. Four years ago it was the new, new thing, now everyone in the media has one, and everyone is getting these e-mails."

Which means the campaigns have to try harder to get noticed: the DNC's "McCain Watch" features stark sepia-toned images of a scowling Mr. McCain, and one recent McCain e-mail had a photo of Mr. Obama in a cowboy hat.

"In an election of this magnitude, it is imperative that journalists across the country are provided with the information about Barack Obama's thin record that is necessary to report the news in a balanced way," said Blair Latoff, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

"Sometimes it takes a lot of e-mails, phone calls, and knocks on the door to ensure readers are informed of Barack Obama's inexperience and lack of energy solutions. John McCain and Republicans across the country are committed to ensuring that everyone has access to our side of the story."

Indeed, said Sean Smith, the Obama campaign's communications director in Pennsylvania: "Pennsylvania families don't want another four years of failed Bush policies and we will continue to draw attention to that fact."

After a slow start at 8:27 a.m. yesterday --"Obama Campaign Continues Rural Blitz in Pennsylvania" -- things began heating up at 8:45 a.m. with a taunting e-mail from the national McCain campaign, noting that "As new polls highlight Obama's vulnerabilities, the world's biggest celebrity gets testy, launching a 'hard-hitting advertising campaign' that 'matches toughening rhetoric,' media report today."

Then Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor sent around an e-mail at 1:37 p.m. helpfully noting that the "New York Times reports McCain is 'dogged by questions' about potential pro-choice VP."

Nyah, nyah nyah nyah yah.

For the rest of the day, it was dueling conference calls, beginning at 2:30 p.m., when former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani -- and McCain surrogate -- was to discuss an Obama campaign adviser's contacts with Syrian officials.

At precisely 2:30 p.m., though, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail entitled, "Things to ask Mayor Giuliani about today on the McCain attack call," followed by an Obama conference call at 3:30 to discuss "Sen. McCain's continued efforts to question Sen. Obama's patriotism." Reporters did ask the questions, Mr. Giuliani was put on the defensive and the conference call was cut short.

At 4:29 the McCain campaign e-mailed with "our campaign's response to the Obama campaign's conference call ... in which Barack Obama's campaign again accused John McCain of questioning their candidate's patriotism."

By 6 p.m. last evening, there had been no response from the Obama campaign -- a sign that the day's trench warfare had ended.

At least the day had begun, though, with some humor from Obama spokesman Bill Burton -- good-natured, for once, and directed, for once, not at John McCain but at the media:

Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 9:41 AM

Subject: Vice Presidential...

Just kidding.