The Hill News

Democrats are taking a page out of their 2010 political playbook to rate Republican presidential candidates in their first major debate Monday evening.

Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) communications director, wrote reporters with pre-debate spin, most of which raised the specter of the Republican contenders for the nomination resurrecting the policies sought last decade by President George W. Bush.

"The most notable thing to look for in tonight's debate, and it won't be hard to find, is how eager Republicans, especially Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, are to return to the failed Republican policies of the last decade that put our economy on the brink of a second Great Depression," Woodhouse wrote.

The memo keyed in on Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, in somewhat of an acknowledgement of their frontrunning position, though Pawlenty lags, as of now, in the poll! s.

And the line of attack -- that the Republicans would revive the "same old" policies -- echoes the attack that Democrats had used against GOP congressional candidates in the 2010 midterms. That defense didn't do much to stave off major losses in House and gubernatorial races, though Democrats maintained their hold on the Senate.

"Americans want progress that works for them, and they know that the same old recipe the Republicans are offering isn’t going to taste any better for them the second time around," Woodhouse wrote.

Find the whole memo after the jump:

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