Maybe now it's time for a conversation? That's why Hillary Clinton's new lead campaign strategist seems to be trying with a new email that's just out.

Remember the Email Wars of 2007, when Chris Dodd would send an email designed to look like it was quickly tapped out on a BlackBerry, and Barack Obama would do the same (plagiarist!) two days later? Then Bill Richardson would forward a message from his staffer as if he was sending pictures of cats around the office; Obama would return fire by having one of his supporters send us an email in his stead; and Dodd remained the king by sending yet more stripped-down emails featuring impressive brevity and lack of HTML formatting. Those were the days.

You know when something is spreading online when your friends ask you about it spontaneously. That's how I heard about feminist Robin Morgan's online rallying cry for Hillary Clinton, "Goodbye To All That (#2)," which has been circulating widely since she posted it on the Women's Media Center website on February 2nd. And then Chelsea Clinton started forwarding it around...

Which would you rather have: A million-member email list or a network of 25,000 bloggers and 20,000 fundraisers? A look at Clinton vs Obama's metrics leads me to one answer: a network is more powerful than a list.

Hillary Clinton's online operation is adapting the traditional tactics of polling and direct mail to survey subscribers of the campaign's email list.  Political campaigns have always contacted donors and potential supporters via phone polls or direct mail appeals, but Clinton's campaign is going one step further, applying similar techniques to obtain a potentially more honest portrait of its email list. 

I wrote about this survey on Huffington Post's Off the Bus, but come take a look at some of my findings after the jump.

Chris Dodd’s campaign just sent out another email that helps them reclaim their throne as the champions of the plain-text-I’m-just-following-up-on-what-so-and-so-said email wars.

“I made a few small changes to your email draft — you’ll see them below.  Would have sent to the entire list myself, but I could only figure out how to send this test,” Dodd Campaign Manager Sheryl Cohen “writes.” 

Email messages are the hallmark of online communications. Forgetting about Facebook applications and video mashups, email is the one tried and true avenue to communicate with constituents or customers. But if your inbox is as cluttered as mine, you know that it can take a lot to open an email from a presidential candidate who in all likelihood is asking you for money. So how close attention do the campaigns pay to making it easy to read their emails? TechPresident has already extensively covered the campaigns' use of email, from Hillary's handwritten notes to stripped-down, BlackBerry-style messages from the candidates. I took a closer look at the mechanics of each campaign's email program and graded their performance based on accepted standards of email marketing. See who makes the grade after the jump.

Forwarded emails from right-wing activists continue to spread false rumors about the candidates; William Beutler says Stephen Colbert is popular in the blogosphere, but not as popular as other candidates; once again, is the left better at the web than the right? No, says Jon Henke, though they still have a few things to learn; a "truth-boating" video drudges up old accusations about Hillary Clinton; and Chris Dodd's Talk Clock is back! Pez!

Chris Dodd and Barack Obama sent out plain text-looking emails last week with informal language that made the emails feel tossed off and addressed just to me.

Now Hillary has one-upped them.

Her email announcing her $27 million take in the third quarter features an actual handwritten note!

Today I received an informal email from Barack Obama -- written to me personally! -- telling me he's "fired up" about last night's rally in New York City and linking to a video about it. It looked awfully familiar.