WSJ reports on the GOP’s “Suburban Strategy.” As part of its 2010 strategy, the GOP will be focusing on winning the suburbs, which according to the WSJ comprise nearly half of the country’s population. According to one poll cited in the article, “Hofstra University’s Center for Suburban Studies found that 31% of suburban voters felt that government actions had hurt their family’s finances—up from 15% the year before.” Such a shift, despite gains made by Democrats in 2008, could be troublesome.

House votes to forego pay hike. It seems Congress can’t justify a pay raise while ordinary Americans are still feeling it in the pocketbooks.

Texas Governor Rick Perry goes jogging, shoots a coyote. He says it’s to protect himself from snakes. I’m guessing it’s an attempt to steal crazy from Sarah Palin.

Sens. Schumer, Bennett (Colo.), Begich, and Franken, go after Mark Zuckerberg. The foursome sent a letter to Zuckerberg, raising questions about information sharing between third parties. The senators wrote, “We are writing to express our concern regarding recent changes to the Facebook privacy policy and the use of personal data on third party websites … The expansion of Facebook — both in the number of users and applications — raises new concerns for users who want to maintain control over their information.”

Democrats are planning another August health care push. This time it’s to sell the bill to constituents and with the PR war. As Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) put it: “We’re going to go out to the American people and let them know exactly what’s in the bill … I think you’re going to see a big difference this August than last August.”

The country is in the midst of a perfect storm–high unemployment and rising consumer prices (2.3% in 12 months) are conspiring to slowly delay an economic recovery. Any resulting discontent among voters will ultimately be passed on to the party in power, despite populist efforts to reform health care or reign in Wall Street. Combined with the trend of the party in power losing seats during a midterm election, and Democrats could lose up to 50 seats in the House. Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight recently suggested the best case scenario is a 20 seat loss. Ouch.

This shouldn’t be surprising, as discontent has taken over the country in the form of not only “tea partier” types, but I would argue so-called “mainstream Americans” as well–Democrat or Republican. Whether it’s the person we buy our coffee from, your kid’s soccer coach or the people we work with, the questions asked remain the same. Will I have my job tomorrow? Will my family have adequate health care? Can we afford to fill up the car with gas? No matter how many pieces of legislation we pass, whether it be health care or climate bills, these questions will not be answered in full by November. But it’s possible Democrats can go a better job of selling the “win.”

November will be about reminding the American people why Democrats were put in the majority to begin with–to bring about the long term and forward-looking notion of change. This means fighting for Main St., not Wall St. And this certainly means laying the ground work to begin a transition to an easier and more cost-effective health care system. One that will ultimately save lives and the money of tax payers–a real pocketbook issue.

I do not support what Rep. Wilson did. It was disrespectful to the President, Congress, and the country. But I also do not support any formal disciplinary measure taken against Rep. Wilson by the House of Representatives. Doing so will likely further divide the parties, and when taking into account the political reality that votes might be difficult to come by, it does not make sense for Democrats to potentially further inflame those against health care reform. We need to be working to reinforce support among Democrats and to bring people across the aisle in favor of reform–not against.