CALIFORNIA: Voters overwhelmingly reject tax increases.

But a rule capping state officials’ salaries when there’s a deficit passed. As California goes, so goes the nation?

UPDATE: A warning? “Politicians be forewarned: the public’s tolerance for tax hikes even in an overwhelmingly liberal state is non-existent. The president and Congress shouldn’t bank on running up the tab and handing the bill to the taxpayers. The taxpayers might just vote ‘no’ on all of them.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: What next?

An administration running auto companies for the benefit of the UAW and its political viability in the Rust Belt undoubtedly considers the Golden State “too big to fail.” After all, the New York Daily News headline would write itself: “Obama to California: Drop Dead.”

However, bailouts are unpopular. Many Americans will chafe just as much at the prospect of paying to bail out California’s decades of inept govenment as they do at paying to bail out GM’s decades of inept management. Obama would bail out California to hold onto those electoral votes, but he will have to worry about how many he loses in the process.

Indeed.