Getting to knooowwww yoooouuu ....

Remember that Rodgers and Hammerstein song from The King and I?

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.

Well, John McCain would like to get to know you, but more importantly, he is getting to hope you like him.

McCain has kicked off a "biography tour" his aides say is designed to "introduce" the Arizona senator to American voters.

He's been in Washington for 25 years, having been first elected to Congress in 1982. McCain ran for president in a contentious race against eventual winner George W. Bush in 2000. He's been at the forefront of some of the most high-profile and important fights on issues important to conservatives (immigration reform, campaign finance reform and federal court nominations chief among them, just off the top of my head). His 2008 campaign is nearly a year old.

So McCain's aides didn't mean they wanted to "introduce" you to McCain. They want to "re-introduce" you to McCain -- and those are the reasons why.

McCain will begin the tour in Mississippi (home to Gov. Haley Barbour, a frequently mentioned potential VP candidate) at the airfield in Meridian named for his famous father. Expect to hear a lot -- and I mean a lot -- about McCain's military pedigree and service, including the nearly six years he spent in a Vietnamese POW camp. Here's one excerpt from his web site:

As the son and grandson of distinguished Navy admirals, John McCain deeply values duty, honor and service of country. John attended college at the United States Naval Academy, and launched a 22-year career as a naval aviator upon his graduation. He continued the McCain tradition of service to country passed down to him from his father and grandfather when he asked to serve in the Vietnam War.

Accompanying these efforts will be a new, 60-second ad that McCain's campaign is calling his first of the general election. It poses hypothetical questions designed to draw contrasts between McCain and either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama ("What must a president believe about us, about America? ... And what must we believe about that president?") and ends with the statement: "John McCain. The American president America has been waiting for."

SIDEBAR: You know, it takes a lot of chutzpah to run for president. A lot of chutzpah. END SIDEBAR

You can watch the ad here.

Getting to know you,
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to say
Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm bright and breezy
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.