Come November, who will win the U.S. presidency?

Will it be the candidate of experience? Or of change?

Will it be the candidate who offers a speedy withdrawal from Iraq? Or who promises to stay the course? Will the economy be the deciding issue? Or national security?

All of these are important considerations for American voters, but the truth is the 2008 contest will likely be decided in favour of the candidate who gets the least sleep.

If a candidate lacks the stamina to be tireless himself, he at least needs a tireless campaign — that is, a team that operates around the clock, never pausing and never giving the opposing side a breather.

This is the standard in the age of the internet and cable news.

The model here is Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, immortalized on the big screen in such films as The War Room and in numerous books, most notably James Carville and Mary Matalin’s All’s Fair.

Clinton’s successful 1992 bid was so far ahead of its time, it was an internet campaign in the pre-internet era. Run by Carville and George Stephanopoulos on behalf of the then-Arkansas governor, it was different from previous losing Democratic efforts in one significant way: Carville vowed no Republican attack would go unanswered in the same news cycle.

This was a revolutionary concept back then. To underline this goal, Carville would wear a T-shirt that read “Speed Kills . . . Bush” when walking around Clinton’s war room, which — symbolically — was headquartered in a converted newsroom in Little Rock.

Carville knew the key to winning was the media and he knew the key to manipulating the media was quickness. It’s hard to imagine a guy like Carville allowing what happened to John Kerry when he went up against George W. Bush in 2004.

The Massachusetts senator thought voters are like him, believers in the high road, so he didn’t strike back for weeks after the swift-boat ads. By that time, it was too late. The first rule of campaigning had been violated: You must launch a speedy counter-attack or else your opponent will define you before you can define yourself in the minds of voters.

It’s hard to believe today, but in 1992 the Republican team working for Bush’s father even took weekends off.

Carville has talked of how he delighted in releasing attacks on Friday afternoons and imagining his GOP counterparts — including his future wife, Mary Matalin — having to cancel their plans so they could respond.

What was revolutionary then is standard procedure in 2008.

The pace of attacks has become even faster, with political operatives sending counterstrikes by BlackBerry before an opponent has even finished a campaign speech. That campaigns move at this pace is Carville’s doing.

Are Barack Obama and John McCain fast enough? The world will be watching to find out.

Whichever candidate punches back before the other side even lands a blow will have the upper hand as the battle to define each aspiring presidents unfolds.

Speed kills . . . for as long as we get our news off the web.