So Pastor John Hagee, the nutty religious figure whose endorsement helped John McCain nail down the GOP nomination, has now apologized for his anti-Catholic comments. Reading between the lines, it seems Hagee apologized in order to inoculate John McCain from blowback against his campaign's smear tactics against Barack Obama.

As the McCain camp steps up their dishonest campaign, keep these two points in mind:

1. The only relevant issue is what Barack Obama believes. If we're debating what someone else believes, then it's not about Barack Obama. (For more, read Andrew Sullivan's March 16 post.)
2. George Bush is the reason why John McCain wants a personality-driven campaign. John McCain is directly responsible for enabling many of the worst policies of the Bush Administration, most importantly the war in Iraq. If the election is a referendum on John McCain's political alliance with George Bush, he cannot win.

The temptation will be strong to fire back with Hagee or some other nutjob when McCain's campaign launches a dishonest smear. At times, that will be appropriate.

But we should always remember: as long as we keep George W. Bush's presidency at the center of this campaign, there's just about no way Barack Obama can lose. After all, they don't call Bush Mr. 28% for nothing.