mr. axelrod $2 million. that company is producing pro-obama health care ads like this one. >> what does health insurance reform mean for you? it means you can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition or dropped if you get sick. it means putting health care decisions in the hands of you and your doctor. bill: now, we are willing to give mr. axelrod the benefit of any doubt, but it's an interesting story. joining us from north carolina, fox news analyst bernie goldberg. this is on the internet, on the political sites. i don't think you're going to see it on the "cbs evening news." is it a big story? >> you know what? i don't think it is. i think you and i probably disagree on this. i don't think it's going to resonate with the american people. you remember not that long ago when dick cheney was criticized by the left for taking us to war in iraq so that he and his former company halliburton could get rich? well, what are we supposed to believe now? what's the right saying now, that david axelrod is ta

axelrod said in the memo, a tough political fight. you don't change health care just because you want to. this is an ongoing fight. i'm glad mr. johnson can give us the historical context. if they're interested and serious in changing this, they have to focus on j.c.'s comments. they have focused and answered in of the cbo realities that this is not going to lower the deficit cost going forward. max baucus has put forward a solid bill. and three, i think they made a miscalculation giving too much of this to the congress. the president's got to be for something. i thought when he struggled in the press conference the other night he couldn't quite declare definitively, in a sustained way, here's what i'm for and here's what i want to sign. if he does that in the august, you get coverage to the blue dogs. i think we might bring j.c. over, listening to him talk act medicare, because we can address those concerns. >> j.c. watts is your least concern. >> i want to move on to the very difficult subject of race, and it's something that the president has taken on obviously in the past couple weeks. here was the image this week, just a

axelrod. of course, he has separated himself from the company. but there are some who are going, now, wait a minute, this seems a little too cozy. the white house denies that mrlerod is making any money from it. gretchen: they do still owe him # million from the stock sale. they're going to be making those payments over the next couple of years. but interestingly enough, at that firm that he created, his son still works there. and no surprise that the two top advisors to obama, these are their former jobs. that they would be behind health care reform shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, but some will say maybe the ties are too close. brian: right. for example, "it's hard to imagine a situation that would have karl rove if he was still getting checks from a firm employed to draw from the drug lobby not being fierdz from the left if president bush was still president." huffington post a big cheerleader fo president obama, quoted a house republican conference statement saying "some may wonder whether the white house senior advisors earning millions of dollars paid for in part by the pharmaceutical industry represent the kind of change america can believe in." da