It has taken some doing, but today I can announce some truly bipartisan agreement on an issue. In this case, the partisans are columnists with varying ideological perspectives. The issue is the new budget just issued by the President and his team. The consensus opinion? It's a joke.

Scot Lehigh of The Boston Globe says the President punted on making the hard choices and has abdicated his responsibility to educate the American people on the tough realities we face.

Megan McArdle of The Atlantic says the budget proposal is disastrous.

Dana Milbank of The Washington Post says the budget simply kicks the can down the road...again.

I think it is clear that the President and his people have made a strategic political calculation. They assume that the Republicans will have to come out swinging with significant budget cuts to programs people like, including entitlements. The President will then rally his Liberal base and hammer away, hoping to get enough non-ideological voters so concerned about their programs that they will come his way, leading to a big comeback victory in 2012. If Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard is correct, then the GOP leadership in the House is going to jump in with both feet by proposing real cuts to these programs. This will set the stage for the battle. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic about the results. I suspect that if the GOP stays true to their belief that programs should be cut without raising taxes, then Obama and the Democrats will be able to give them a beating in the media. That will likely lead to an Obama victory in 2012 with the Democrats regaining the House. Of course, they will still be faced with the same problems. They will have to raise taxes, which will lead to their defeat in 2014, and so on. I hope I am wrong. If the GOP can propose significant cuts and still win in 2012, then we might see some real progress.

Jay Cost predicts that the 2012 election may prove to be a true ideological contest, in his estimation for only the third time in American history.

Andrew McCarthy continues to warn about the true nature of the Islamists in Egypt and elsewhere.

Soaring food prices may ignite instability in Asia, a scary thought indeed.