Still, there’s a major difference in the way Republicans talk about the law and the way the president does, says George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the and an expert on political messaging.

Lakoff says Republicans talk about the law as a moral issue. “Basically … they say that democracy is about liberty, the liberty to pursue your own self-interest without you having to take care of anybody else’s interests or anybody else having to take care of yours.”

But when Obama talks about the health law — at least this week, says Lakoff — “his message was all about money.”

And Lakoff says that’s pretty much been the president’s problem: He’s mostly shied away from talking about health care on the same moral terms as have the Republicans.

But he could talk about it from the moral perspective of Democrats if he wanted to, Lakoff says.