McCain’s campaign puts up a web ad arguing that he’s better because his parents were great. The royalty argument, I think that is.

Conservative NY Times columnist William Kristol would scold him for that, I think. Kristol writes today that biography isn’t enough.

McCain will spend this week trying to reinforce his biographical advantage, embarking on a “Service to America” tour to places associated with his own, and his family’s, service to the country — from McCain Field (named for his grandfather) near Meridian, Miss., to Annapolis, to two of his stateside Navy postings in Florida.

This is a perfectly reasonable way for McCain to spend time while most of the country enjoys the Democrats’ rollicking demolition derby.

But here’s something for the McCain campaign to remember: Democracies don’t always elect the man who has done the most for his country. . . .

Campaign consultants like to say elections are about the present and the future more than the past. To the degree they are about the past, they’re about the very recent past: “What have you done for me lately?” But we don’t even hear that question much anymore. Today’s campaigns are designed to capture the present and imagine the future.