The Washington Post’s Channel ‘08 blog (which tracks the videos of the 2008 campaign) notes two web-only attack ads released by the RNC and DNC attacking Barack Obama and John McCain’s positions on Iraq, respectively.

On July 8, the RNC released a video designed to show Barack Obama’s shifting positions on the surge in Iraq, making the case that Obama has radically changed his position based on political expediency.

The next day, the DNC countered with a video that criticized John McCain’s different answers to the question of when he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.

What do you think of the ads? Regardless of which candidate you support, how effective do you think each ad was?

*UPDATE: On a related note, The New York Times observes that the 2008 campaign hasn’t been quite as “friendly” as Obama and McCain promised.

This campaign, though, had held out more promise than most previous election cycles to be something different, with two candidates whose pledges to change “politics as usual” have been central to their political identities. Mr. Obama has regularly inveighed against “all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington”; Mr. McCain, whose bus and plane are streaked with the words “Straight Talk,” has talked about running “a respectful campaign,” what he has called “an argument among friends.”

But roughly a month into the general election campaign, the Obama and McCain campaigns are already locked in a minute-by-minute fight, trading advertisement for advertisement, sound bite for sound bite, press release for press release — and, yes, insulting name for insulting name — with rhetoric that can be as harsh and misleading as that of any previous campaign.