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With a stagnant stock market, a vice-like housing crunch, and intractable unemployment numbers, the Republican political story line for 2012 is already written: Barack Obama inherited a bad situation and made it worse.

Not so, the president and his re-election team have insisted -- Obama staved off another Great Depression. And now the Democrats’ main counterargument is morphing into something more edgy: Republicans are not helping the president address the nation’s economic mess because they want so badly to win the next election.

Which version will swing voters believe 11 months from now? If you know the answer to that question, you probably know which political party will control Congress and the White House in 2013. Historic precedent would seem to favor the Republicans: After four years, it will surely be Obama’s economy. But the GOP’s path is not without peril. For starters, in communicating with voters, Republicans must ensure that they don’t ever sound happy about bad economic numbers.

That’s because independent voters -- the kind who determine close elections -- don’t appreciate political professionals who view their fellow Americans’ failing as a partisan opportunity. Some Republicans know this.

“We need to be sorrowful and show empathy, not be gleeful,” John Weaver, chief strategist to presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman, told RealClearPolitics.

“Especially in this season, the response should be one of empathy and concern,” adds conservative consultant and author Craig Shirley. “The problem with the current GOP is that it is dominated by some really bad operatives who are all tactical.”

Not all Republicans share this concern. Among those who believe that the economy itself -- not the tone taken when discussing it -- is what really matters are renowned GOP strategist Karl Rove, the leadership in the House of Representatives, and some of the Republican Party’s most accomplished communicators.

Frank Luntz, famed for getting Republicans to massage their message, argues against type. Luntz suggests that no matter what Democrats say about Republicans, the president cannot escape the economic facts of life. “He can say whatever he wants,” Luntz said. “It won’t have credibility if the numbers and the perceptions don’t improve. The public wants accountability.”

Juleanna Glover, a well-known Washington Republican who is aligned this cycle with Huntsman, concurs. “I don't see danger,” she says. “Quite frankly, I think GOP harrumphing about economic numbers isn't loud enough.”

Glover points approvingly to the practice of Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., whose office regularly puts out “He's Making It Worse” press releases. “There’s lots of criticism flying about but no consistent phraseology,” she adds. “I feel like too many folks are trying to coin their own slogans.”

Some of that will change when a Republican presidential nominee is in place. In the meantime, House Republicans are passing their own version of an economic policy -- tax cuts, mostly -- knowing that their legislation is probably doomed in the Senate, and that Obama would veto it anyway.

On Tuesday, Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, issued a statement asserting that the latest veto threat to come out of the White House was based on “fictitious” reasoning -- and that the Senate’s inaction amounted to “legislative malpractice.”