Blueprint for the Democratic counter-attack

The DSCC will distribute a memo Tuesday advising Democratic campaign managers to frame their opponents early - and to drive a wedge between moderate voters and tea-party-style conservatives, POLITICO's Manu Raju and John Bresnahan report.

MORE: "The memo urges Democratic candidates to force their opponents to answer a series of questions: ‘Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?' If a Republican candidate says no to any of the questions, the memo says Democrats should ‘make their primary opponent or conservative activists know it. This will cause them to take heat from their primary opponents and could likely provoke a flip-flop, as it already has several times with Mark Kirk in Illinois.'"

The Democrats obviously believe that they will catch some Republicans in "got ya" situations, believing they will be forcing them to either cater to the base of the GOP or reach out to the middle.

The problem is that - in the words of Obama - this is a false choice. The questions Democrats want to ask may be eagerly promoted and dwelt upon by the press but ordinary people could care less. There are also few GOP primary opponents who embrace birtherism, or Ron Paul style libertarianism.

And I don't think the Democrats really want to ask about the 10th amendment, socialism, or anything else that will make Republican candidates look fairly reasonable compared to Obama. It is the president and his policies that are seen as radical - not the GOP.

And I don't think even their friends in the press will be able to save them if they go this route.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky