Budget sleight of hand is a thing of the past? Hardly.

Well, Obama won’t have George W. Bush to kick around much longer: “This is Obama’s budget, one he has said will fix federal spending. He owns the deficit now.”

Kimberley Strassel’s must read gives us Obama Cliffs Notes: “The thing about cutting deficits is that there are only two choices, one hard for politicians, the other hard for Americans. Government can reduce spending, or government can raise taxes. Mr. Obama made clear with yesterday’s budget he has no intention of cutting back. So the hard part now falls to Americans, who are being told they have a patriotic duty to their children to pay more, and cover Washington’s costs.” Short version: It’s all Bush’s fault, government is taking over much of the economy, and your kids are getting the bill.

And, as Mona Charen points out, we have to do it really fast: “Obama, like other liberals, wants to dispense with experimentation and debate (which he dismisses as the ‘the same old gridlock and partisan posturing’) and sluice an enormous liberal/socialist wish list, to include single-payer health care, universal college education, and so-called green energy into law.”

Is Jim Tedisco (running for Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat in the NY-20) the first step back for the GOP?

And, so far, Tedisco has a twelve point lead in the polls.

“Do the markets hate Obama?” In a word, “yes.”

“Class warfare returns to Washington.” Aside from one noteworthy slip about “spreading the wealth,” Obama ran on an economically  moderate, mildly pro-tax cut position. “But no amount of spin or recalibration could fuzz up the flashback to previous Democratic administration’s fiscal policy when Obama unveiled his spending plan.”

People who live with wallpaper swatches shouldn’t take potshots at decorators. (Alert: Is the media getting cheeky all of the sudden?)

Finally bipartisanship: 87 Senators oppose the Fairness Doctrine.

I suppose it’s not really news that Joe Biden doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Louisiana is actually gaining jobs, contrary to his claim.

It is very early, but this is a cogent argument that 2012 looks better than 2008 for Mitt Romney: “Other potential 2012 candidates will have trouble making as compelling a case for the nomination. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is still very young and may not even run. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will never gain support from fiscal conservatives. Palin has too many detractors within the party. Romney, however, has already answered the tough questions from the GOP skeptics.” And we likely will need a turnaround guru by 2012. That said, virtually everything one said in 2005 about 2008 turned out to be wrong.

I think Patrick Ruffini was at a different CPAC than the other 8000 of us. At the actual one, Paul Ryan, Steve Moore, Mike Pence (who got raves from many there and online), John Bolton and even Mike Huckabee were talking about conservative revitalization and some meaty policy issues. But it would be mundane, I suppose, to sit and actually listen (or even report) on what was happening. Really, all of the cultural divide blog-chatter is very 2008. Virtually the entire GOP is focused on saving the free market these days.

This is quite representative of much of the discussion.

And these appear to be real conservatives. Young ones, even.