Click here to watch "This Year."

With under a month to go until Election Day, John McCain and Barack Obama are getting personal. Both campaigns have announced they're launching more aggressive attacks which take aim at each other's character and try to establish guilt by association.

For its part, the Obama camp has launched a TV ad as well as an online messaging effort -- complete with a 13-minute documentary -- highlighting McCain's involvement in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal nearly 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the GOP camp has plans to release several ads that take aim at Obama's judgment and personal associations.

The Illinois senator released his TV spot, "This Year" (subscription) on Saturday that preemptively defends himself from McCain's anticipated attacks by characterizing his opponent as desperate. It is also the first TV from the Obama camp to directly reference McCain's temperament -- citing a USA Today editorial that labels McCain's response to the financial meltdown as "erratic."

"No wonder his campaign’s announced a plan to 'turn the page on the financial crisis,'" the ad's announcer says, referencing Saturday's Washington Post story about the McCain campaign's plan of attack. The spot goes on to accuse McCain distracting voters "with dishonest, dishonorable 'assaults' against" Obama at a time when people are concerned about the country's economic future. "We can’t afford another president who’s this out of touch," he says, as a photo of McCain and President Bush fills the screen.

The McCain camp said it's waiting until after the second presidential debate Tuesday to release the series of new ads that, among other things, brings to the forefront Obama's relationship with Chicago businessman and now convicted felon Tony Rezko. In the meantime, however, Republicans aren't skimping on on harsh accusations.

An ad released this morning, "Dangerous" (subscription), throws the "dishonorable" charge back at Obama for supposedly saying at an August rally that U.S. troops are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians." But the footage used in "Dangerous" takes Obama's comments out of context; what he said was, "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." The Illinois senator has, in fact, called for sending additional troops to Afghanistan

This ad comes on the heels of another, "Promise," released by the McCain camp after the first presidential debate. The spot pits the Democratic ticket against itself, calling Obama out for voting again troop funding and highlighting Joe Biden's criticism of that position.

The Obama camp was quick to respond to the most recent ad via a statement by John B. Natham, a retired four-star admiral: "Despite consistent distortions of his record, thousands of veterans like myself support Senator Obama because he has the judgment, character and integrity to be a great president."

-- Mary Gilbert contributed to this report.