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To hear Republicans tell it, President Barack Obama is the leader of a lackluster economy -- and Americans believe them.

The only problem: That view is outdated.

Last weeks Labor Department report showed the economy added 321,000 jobs in November, marking 10 consecutive months in which the number has topped 200,000. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent from a month earlier, the most since June of last year. At the same time, most Americans -- 52 percent in a Gallup poll -- said the economy was getting worse in November, echoing the Republican message.

Theyve done a better job of saying, The economy is not working as well as it should have and elect us and well do a better job, said John Silvia, the chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina.

For years, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, repeated a simple mantra to needle Obama on the economy: Where are the jobs? To the dismay of some Democrats, the White House has avoided declaring victory in Washingtons rhetorical war over the economy because the slow pace of growth has frustrated those who havent felt the benefits of the recovery.

The jobs report will have some impact on the public perception of the economy, as it should, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Dec. 5. We certainly welcome those signs of strength. We want to make sure that -- that working folks are experiencing those kinds of benefits, too.

There are signs that the public perception of the economy already is shifting. The same Gallup poll showed the smallest gap in a year and a half between Americans who say the economy is getting worse and those who say its getting better. And Boehners Where are the jobs? slogan was absent from the statement he released last week after the new economic data.

While its welcome news that more people found work last month, millions still remain out of work, and middle-class families across the country, including my home state of Ohio, are struggling to get by on wages that havent kept pace with rising costs, he said. The presidents response has been more of the same: the same massive regulations, the same rising premiums, and the same uncertainty for manufacturers and small businesses.

Until this year, Americans frustration was justified, said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Corp. in New York. Income gains were seen only for the richest, and job growth had yet to meaningfully accelerate.

If you go back a year ago, and in fact if you look at the whole first five years of the economic recovery, the public perception was largely correct, he said. Forecasters in the government -- both in the Obama administration and the Fed -- were much too optimistic coming into the recovery so they sent out this very bullish view which was disappointed. If they had been a little more conservative, it wouldnt feel as bad.

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Republican Message Sinks In Even as Obama Economy Gains Strength