Demonizing the Tea Party, how original.

(WaPo) — President Obama’s re-election campaign argues in a memo set to be released this morning that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — the two frontrunners for the Republican nomination — have “embraced policies that the American people oppose” on Social Security and immigration.

“The campaign to win the Republican nomination has become a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Tea Party,” writes Ben LaBolt, press secretary for Obama’s re-election effort. “They would return to policies that have been tried before and done nothing to improve economic security for the middle class, rewarding special interests who can afford to pay for lobbyists instead of looking out for working families.”

The memo, which amounts to the most direct assault against Perry and Romney by the president’s campaign to date, provides a window into the incumbent’s strategy as the GOP primary season begins to heat up.

That strategy? Paint both Romney and Perry as extremists, having adopted positions on key issues outside of the mainstream of American thought.