Is it really a GOP-friendly earthquake if Californians passed an initiative awarding its electoral votes by Congressional district rather than "winner take all."

Doesn't it all depend on who the Republican nominee is?

Sure if it's Thompson or McCain you can chalk up another easy victory for the Democrats. But what if the nominee is Guiliani? Do you know a single Italian-American, Democrat or not (and the vast majority ARE Democrats), who is not going to corss the aisle to vote for the first Italian-American Presidential candidate? I don't. And, as one of them, I've discussed this with many Italian-Americans, many of them in San Francisco. Tha't's only one factor, of course, that makes Guiliani extremely competitive in California. And which should make the Democrats interested in at least preserving half of that's state's electoral votes if Guiliani is the nominee. Or do the Democrats just accept that they lose if Giuliani is the nominee so this doomsday prospect isn't worth thinking about?

But they won't pass it. At least I don't see how it would have a prayer of passing in such a Democratic state. ... [via Influence Peddler] 4:52 P.M.

Would I cross the aisle to vote for a Jew who was running on the Republican ticket? No. Polls suggest that Republican women are not going to vote for HRC because she is a woman. And so on. I find this hard to believe but maybe I underestimate Italian-American ethnic solidarity.

Yes, that was precisely my point -- that people tend to underestimate Italian-American solidarity on this, at least in the privacy of the voting booth. The difference with the Jewish situation is that discrimination against Italian-American's is still a permissible form of bigotry. And many Italian-Americans are tired of it and resent it.

And in any case, I didn't even begin to get into the factor of the solidarity of opera lovers, who simply cannot believe the prospect of having an American President who not only has attended the opera, but has hosted Live From the Met . . . another small (but not neglibile, it numbers in the millions) group of predominantly Democratic zealots who, again in the privacy of the voting booth, will be pulling the lever with Giuliani.