Keeping his energy focused on domestic issues this week, John McCain's campaign has released a new TV ad about ... energy.

The ad begins with a faint chant, and an announcer that says: "Gas prices four dollars, five dollars, no end in sight. Because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?"

The chant crescendos and a crowd is heard answering, "Obama! Obama! Obama!"

"One man knows we must now drill more in America, and rescue our family budgets. Don't hope for more energy, vote for it," the ad concludes.

"John McCain said recently that 'our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington,'" Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said in response to the ad. "As someone who's been in Washington for 26 years, Senator McCain is one of those politicians, and he's consistently opposed investments in renewable energy that would reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

"Pump" is a 30-second message that will be cycled into the campaign's national cable advertising, and air on broadcast stations in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Washington, D.C. market (in order to reach Northern Virginia voters) and Wisconsin. This latest ad joins a McCain ad critical of Barack Obama's foreign policy experience, which started airing this past weekend.

-- Ed O'Keefe

MoveOn.org has produced a new ad using recent comments by Iraq's prime minister to make its case that John McCain is wrong about the Iraq war.

"Timeline" is a 30-second spot that picks up on Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent statements that he wants a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops in his country. The ad also notes that "the American people are demanding a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq."

"But John McCain doesn't want a timetable," the ad continues. "He'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars more to keep our keep our troops in Iraq for years and years."

MoveOn will spend $100,000 on the ad, according to a group source. The group has aired several anti-McCain messages in the past few months. But these types of attack ads on McCain's position on Iraq have done little to change support of his ability to lead the nation's military: 72 percent of respondents in the latest Post-ABC poll said McCain would make a good commander-in-chief.

-- Ed O'Keefe

The latest in a series of television commercials touting Barack Obama's national security proposals starts airing Thursday on national cable channels.

Here's the full script:

Forty years ago it was missile silos and the Cold War. Today, it's cyber attacks, loose nukes, oil money funding terrorism.

Barack Obama understands our changing world. On the Foreign Relations Committee, he co-sponsored a law to lock down loose nuclear weapons. As president, he'll rebuild our alliances to take out terrorist networks. And fast-track alternatives so we stop spending billions on oil from hostile nations. New leadership for a changing world.

The ad's mention of Obama's work to secure loose nuclear weapons was the topic of an ad released on Tuesday.

-- Ed O'Keefe

By Ed O'Keefe in The Trail:

As Barack Obama gives what his campaign is billing as a "major address" on national security, he will start airing a new ad that promotes his efforts to secure nuclear weapons around the world.

Calling it "the single most important national security threat that we face," Obama speaks with voters in footage first used in some of his primary campaign ads.

"We are a beacon of light around the world. At least that's what we can be again. That's what we should be again," Obama tells the voters.

The senator is also seen visiting nuclear sites in Ukraine with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who is active on the nuclear security issue. The pair traveled to Ukraine in 2005 to inspect weapons storage facilities. They saw "mortar rounds, land mines and artillery shells of all sizes stacked in huge piles and strewn carelessly about," according to a Post op-ed they wrote in late 2005. Lugar and Obama later co-sponsored a bill passed by Congress that led the U.S. to coordinate efforts with other nations to reduce weapon stockpiles and smuggling.

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Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe speaks with supporters with a direct-to-YouTube update on the state of the campaign's finances and grassroots efforts:

Plouffe notes the big cash raised by John McCain and the RNC, and encourages supporters to donate what they can to fight what he calls "untrue negative ads" that he expects will air "all across the country."

-- Ed O'Keefe

John McCain's newest ad attempts to humanize the nation's immigration debate by citing the military service and sacrifice of Latino veterans. It's a reminder to viewers that McCain once led immigration reform efforts, which died in Congress but proved popular with Latinos.

"God's Children" is a 60-second message that uses clips from an answer McCain gave to a question about immigration during a June 5, 2007 CNN debate. It will air in California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Here's what McCain says:

I want you the next time you're in Washington, D.C. and go to the Vietnam War Memorial. Look at the names engraved on black granite. You'll find a whole lot of Hispanic names. When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you're going to see a whole lot of people who are of Hispanic background.

You're even going to meet some of the few thousand that are still green card holders who are not even citizens of this country, who love this country so much that they're willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship and enjoy the bountiful blessed nation.

Let's, from time to time, remember that these are God's children. They must come into our country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them.

Latino immigrants accounted for three of the first casualties of the Iraq war back in 2003. Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who immigrated illegally from Guatemala at age 14, was the first service member killed in Iraq. Cpl. Jose A. Garibay and Pfc. Francisco A. Martinez Flores were born in Mexico. They and others were posthumously granted U.S. citizenship.

More about U.S. casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be learned at washingtonpost.com's Faces of the Fallen project.

-- Ed O'Keefe

Web-only videos produced by campaigns and other political groups probably earn more media attention than they deserve, since they're not widely watched. But they often are a preview of how that candidate or group will advertise more widely.

One day after the GOP released a video questioning Barack Obama's stance on the Iraq war, the Democratic National Committee has released a video highlighting John McCain's various answers on when he would pull troops out of the conflict.

"When?" features clips of television interviews with McCain, during which he says he would pull troops out in two to three years, five years, and 100 years.

"As voters try to decide who has the judgment to handle Iraq, Afghanistan, the other challenges America faces, they should look at John McCain's record of poor judgment and inconsistencies on Iraq," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.

"This is nothing but a cheap attempt to distract from Obama's own attempts to 'refine' his position on Iraq," said Alex Conant, spokesman for the RNC. "Considering how Obama's been all over the map on Iraq in the last few weeks, the DNC is only undermining their campaign by releasing a misleading video like this. Taking somebody else's words out of context won't make Obama's words any more believable."

-- Ed O'Keefe

Asked by a voter today in Georgia if he has shifted his opinions on Iraq, guns and the death penalty, Barack Obama suggested "The people who say this haven't apparently been listening to me."

"You're not going to agree with me on 100 percent of what I think, but don't assume that if I don't agree with you on something that it must be because I'm doing that politically," Obama told voters.

The GOP has produced a Web-only video however that's designed to demonstrate how Obama has shifted his position on the Iraqi "troop surge."

"Obama's Iraq Problem: Change That Works For Him" starts with video clips of Obama stating his opposition to the surge and his support of a 16-month withdrawal schedule. It then uses statements by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), Sen. Joseph Liberman (I-Conn.), and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) stating that the surge is working. It ends with a clip of a July 3 press conference where Obama is asked if he's shifted his position on his 16-month timetable of withdrawal. Obama laughs nervously, but his final answer is not shown.

This is not the first video of its kind, and as both Obama and John McCain shift positions on issues, it will not be the last.

-- Ed O'Keefe

By Ed O'Keefe in The Trail:

The Obama campaign will air an ad promoting his energy plans and criticizing his GOP rival's in the same four states where the Republican National Committee has aired an ad critical of his proposals.

"On gas prices, John McCain's part of the problem," the ad's announcer says. "McCain and Bush support a drilling plan that won't produce a drop of oil for seven years. McCain will give more tax breaks to big oil. He's voted with Bush 95 percent of the time." It also states that Obama will raise mileage standards, promote alternative fuels, and offer tax cuts for families. The 30-second ad, "New Energy," will air in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In response to news of the ads, the RNC sent out a memo pointing out that Obama voted for the energy plan he criticizes in the new ad. The GOP also notes that Obama has released what it considers the first negative ad of the general election, though Obama told a crowd in North Carolina in late April that, "We're not going to go around doing negative ads. We're going to keep it positive."

The McCain campaign's assertion that Obama's is the first negative ad of the cycle is disputed by Democrats who cite a few examples, including a Spanish-language radio ad released last week that suggests Obama is not doing enough to attract Latino voters.

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John McCain's latest ad makes subtle suggestions that Barack Obama's rhetoric does not qualify him to serve as president. It also reminds baby boomers that while many of them were participating in the excesses of the late 1960s, he was serving time in a North Vietnamese prison camp.

The 60-second message titled "Love" will be cycled into the campaign's national ad buy, will air on national cable networks, and will also appear on broadcast stations in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Washington, D.C. television market (in order to reach voters in Northern Virginia) and Wisconsin, according to a campaign source.

The full script:

It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The "Summer Of Love." Half a world away, another kind of love -- of country. John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured.

Offered early release, he said, "No." He'd sworn an oath. Home, he turned to public service. His philosophy: before party, polls and self ... America.

A maverick, John McCain tackled campaign reform, military reform, spending reform. He took on presidents, partisans and popular opinion.

He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles. John McCain doesn't always tell us what we "hope" to hear.

Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can. Don't "hope" for a better life. Vote for one. McCain.

While this message delivers a serious reminder of McCain's military service, it's similar to a light-hearted ad he aired in New Hampshire last fall that used footage from a Fox News debate during which he said he did not attend Woodstock because "I was tied up at the time." McCain has also aired other messages that use photos and footage of his years as a POW.

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-- Ed O'Keefe