i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, saving us from ourselves. a superhero saving america, just like clark kent, the original 1950 superman. >> faster than a speeding bullet. more powerful than a locomotive. able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. >> look, up in the sky, it's a bird. >> it's a plane. >> it's super bloomberg. he came to new york city with powers and abilities far more than mortal men. super bloomberg has banned smoking in bars and parks. forced restaurants to stop using transfats as his bare hands and he is really fighting for america's health, saying you can't buy a big gulp. it's a shot heard from coast to coast, the mayor planning to ban the sale of all sugary drinks sold in containers larger than 16 ounces. including energy drinks and presweetened iced teas. former president bill clinton weighed in. >> i know a lot of people think this is an anti-state and he is interfering, but these are very serious problems. and there are a lot of things in our diet that not only make us too heavy, but put too much sugar in our body which have an enormous number of people with diabetes and a lot of people teetering on the edge of it. >> all right. he said nanny state. some people say it's a slap in the face of american freedom. but maybe it's just a punch in the face of big food. the food and beverage industry seems to be buying other politicians' silence. remember the sugar tax proposal? that was kryptonite action even for super bloomberg. he couldn't beat the lobbyists down. big food spent $27 million lobbying politicians last year. coca-cola and pepsi led the charge. and that is money well spent when you consider the return. those two beverage giants alone brought in $113 billion in combined revenue last year. those returns are insane. but the costs hit everyone. thanks in part to big food ingredients, including sugar, the obesity epidemic in america is out of control. nearly two-thirds of americans are overweight or obese. tonight that's more than 190 million americans. 25 million have diabetes. according to the cdc, the health care costs are astounding. for diabetes and obesity, $364 billion a year, paid for by yourself. oh, yeah, and if you include heart disease, the number one killer, the cdc tacks on another $444 billion a year. so maybe we really do need a super hero to help us fight the food cocaine dealers and help us help ourselves. now, the beverage industry rebuts that. coke responded to super bloomberg's statement today saying, quote, the people of new york city are much smarter than the new york city health department believes. they can make their own choices about the beverages they purchase. now, perhaps they're right. we can make our own choices. the problem is we're just weak. we, the people, love sweets. as dog owners digest reports, quote, while the pathetic begging look that goes across the face of a dog wanting chocolate can weaken the most stoic dog owner, stay firm. do not give in. ever. chocolate can kill dogs. just like fatty, sugary food can kill people. some people say once you start, it won't stop. this is big brother. the super mayor is still allowing alcohol, diet soda and fruit juice. maybe we do need someone to tempt us with the sweets and leave us with the bill when we get sick and fat. robert kenner and matt welch are outfront tonight. obviously we had a lot of fun putting that together today. matt, let me just ask you, though, is this a case -- i know you're going to be somebody, look, get the government out of my business but is this a place where we can draw the line. >> definitely the 20-ounce level of coke is where we need to draw -- if that bottle is any higher than 16 ounces, stop it. finally we have a super hero. no, it's ridiculous. what bloomberg is trying to do and unfortunately too many other mayors around the country are trying to do is change people's behavior by criminalizing their choices. it's kind of an appalling conception of what government is here to do. we're talking about what people do with their own lives that don't hurt anybody. it's consensual choice of what they want to put in their own bodies. it is not the government's role and it's not going to change their behavior ultimately whether they can buy a 24 or 32-ounce soda at the citi field or not. it is a ridiculous misuse of what government should be doing in any context at all. >> robert, i know you would beg to differ and i have to say as someone who now travels around this country, smoking bans in bars are a fantastic thing. >> well, smoking bans in california started -- well, they added a smoking tax about 11 years ago and it saved us a ton, a ton of money because of the decrease in lung cancer. and i disagree with matt when he says this is not doing anyone any harm. the fact is, we have a major health care crisis on our hands and it's costing us all a fortune. >> matt, what about this -- the quote about the dog? i mean this is -- okay, dogs love chocolate. the problem is you give the dog a little bit of chocolate and the dog cannot control itself and it wants you. it gives you that look and it breaks your heart to say no. but sometimes you have to restrict the dog's choices to save the dog's life. we are the dogs. >> i think this is a very telling analogy, because we are calling ourselves dogs that need to be treated by the owner, which is government. this is creepy. i mean let's not put too fine a point on it. this is weird territory we're getting into right now and doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of public health or anything else. this is not what we should be doing in this country for crying out loud. let's also think about this. there's a disturbing element of class here. it's not as if bloomberg and his friends in wall street or the hipsters in brooklyn who are eating grass-fed pigs an these kind of things, they're not the ones drinking 24-ounce sodas. it's this element going after transfats and high salt content that bloomberg has shown throughout his mayoralhood of going after those people's choices here. it is rich people telling poor people how to live and i'm frankly uncomfortable with it and i think people should look in the mirror a little bit before they start telling people what to do. >> when people do that, they need money for the health care and that comes from the taxpayer. >> yeah, when we filmed "in food inc." we went to a lorin come school. when i ask people how many people they knew that had diabetes in that classroom, everybody knew at least three people with diabetes. it costs about $500 a month to buy diabetes medicine. right now one-third of all americans born after the year 2000 will have early onset diabetes. so i think we have an absolute health care crisis. the majority of the weight that's being put on is because of sodas. so right now i think we have to do something about this and it's an absolute crisis that's costing us way too much and costing poor people way too much. these sodas, this cheap food is way too expensive. >> well, thanks very much to both of you. maybe the solution is if coke and pepsi and big food had to pay the bill, unlike the taxpayer, on that health care, maybe they wouldn't want to sell the drinks anymore. still outfront, the obama campaign attacks mitt romney. we ran the numbers and will tell you if the attack adds up. finally a verdict, sorta, in the john edwards' trial. a verdict that is as weird, strange and twisted as the trial itself. what happens next? paul callan ahead. and how barney, the purple dinosaur, is america's secret interrogation weapon. >> announcer: this is the day. the day that we say to the world of identity thieves "enough." we're lifelock, and we believe you have the right to live free from the fear of identity theft. our pledge to you? as long as there are identity thieves, we'll be there. we're lifelock. and we offer the most comprehensive identity theft protection ever created. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. what makes a sleep number store different? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. welcome to the sleep number memorial day sale. where you can celebrate our 25-year commitment to a single mission: better sleep for both of you. never tried this before. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the hips. take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes. when you're playing around with that remote, you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" oh, yeah! ... and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better. and right now, save 50% on our innovative sleep number silver edition bed-for a limited time. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. hurry in to the final days of the sleep number memorial day sale sale ends sunday. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. our second story outfront, let's call it stunt day in america, from sea to shining sea. just a day after promising a healthy debate in this election year, the obama and romney teams held duelling events. in massachusetts, president obama's top strategist slammed mitt romney's record as governor, obviously fittingly in front of the state capitol in boston. and in california, romney made a surprise appearance at the headquarters of, oh, yeah, bankrupt company solyndra, calling it a symbol of the president's failed economic policies. the press secretary for the obama campaign, good to see you. >> nice to be with you tonight, erin. >> good to see you. all right. so i want to just get straight to this issue of what your team is trying to say about mitt romney and talking about his record as the governor of massachusetts. obviously you're going hard after job creation. so i want to get straight to it, to duval patrick with joe scarborough this morning. here he is. >> i think when he left office, it was in the fours, about 4.3 was the national average. >> that's pretty good. >> yeah. it was about -- by the time he left, it was about what the national rate was. i think it had trailed the national rate, been higher than the national rate for most of his time. at the time he left, i think that's about right. >> all right, ben, your surrogate seems to be a little off message. >> well, you know, we need to take a look at where massachusetts ranked compared to other states during mitt romney. when he came into office, massachusetts ranked 36th out of 50th in job creation and it slipped to 47th under mitt romney. manufacturing jobs declined by twice the national average. that's because of the policy that say romney pursued as governor, similar ones to those that he would pursue today. he cut funding for manufacturing in massachusetts. he vetoed legislation that would have prevented outsourcing. he cut programs essential for the middle class for things like education. ultimately it had an impact. it had an impact on middle class families. but it's not just job creation we're talking about today, erin. we're talking about debt and deficits, we're talking about spending, we're talking about the size of government. he made a bunch of promises in 2002 that sound like the ones he's making on the campaign trail today and he didn't fulfill them. debt increased by 16%. he left the state with a billion dollar deficit. taxes went up. spending went up. and so if those policies didn't work then, why would they work at that? >> one thing that's interesting here, and deval patrick is the current governor of massachusetts who came in after mitt romney. he also talked about bain capital and said it was, quote, a perfectly fine company. obviously we heard that same line from cory booker about a week and a half ago on "meet the press." so are you concerned that some of these attacks on the likes of bain capital, though, will not stick? if people who know the company well are defending it in your own party? >> not at all. the bulk of governor patrick's interview was about the buyer's remorse that massachusetts residents have about romney's tenure there. there was a poll that came out recently in massachusetts that showed romney losing his home state by 25 points. but governor patrick has made the same point that we have, that this isn't an attack on the financial sector or private equity generally. the question we are asking is, are the lessons and values and experiences that romney took from his tenure as a corporate buyout specialist where he profited off of bankrupting companies and outsourcing jobs an effective one that the american people would like to see in the oval office. massachusetts provides us with the example of how it worked and it didn't work for middle class families in massachusetts. >> before we go, unemployment rate was 4.7 ahead of the 4.5 national average. but it seems that a lot of the problems he may have had are problems that your guys has as well. wage growth slowed this month. may the slowest we have seen in several months. we have people leading the workforce at record numbers. that could cause the unemployment rate to go down because more people are dissatisfied and unhappy. are you trying to take the attention off because the president's record doesn't look so good when looked at it that way? >> not at all. mitt romney says the economic crisis never happened. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month when the president came into office. the manufacturing sector was in decline. the auto industry was on the brink. businesses have now created more than 4.2 million jobs. manufacturing is resurgent. gm is the number one automaker in the world again. if you want to compare records, look no further than this stat. under mitt romney in the first 40 months of his administration, under 5,000 jobs were created. under president obama in the past 40 months, in the state of massachusetts, we've created nearly 22,000 jobs. >> obviously it was a much deeper economic crisis this time than last, but certainly some important numbers to keep in mind. thanks so much to ben. there are new polls showing a tightening race between the president and mitt romney in three battleground states. colorado, iowa and nevada. all states the president won in 2008. now, one thing that could swing the vote, though, is women, and we know they are important. issues they care about central to this campaign. today a heated debate over sex-selective abortions. dana bash is outfront. >> reporter: what you're looking at is a sting operation. an anti-abortion actor undercover at a texas planned parenthood clinic pretending to want an abortion if she's having a girl. a planned parenthood staffer helps by giving advice on how to find out the baby's gender. >> you don't have to say what you're going to go do. >> reporter: planned parenthood issued a statement saying it condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias and fired its employee caught on tape. and in yet another video from new york city just released today, a social worker doesn't encourage aboerlting a female fetus but doesn't condemn it either. >> if you find out that it's a girl and if what you would prefer is to terminate the pregnancy, that's your decision. >> reporter: it's no accident that ly lila rose released these edited videos this week. >> we're missing these girls and that should cause all of us distress. >> reporter: rose carefully coordinated with house republicans, pushing new anti-abortion legislation banning what they call gendercide. >> we are going to allow little girls to be killed before they're born simply because they are little girls. >> reporter: under the legislation, doctors who knowingly perform abortions chosen because of gender would face up to five years in prison and fines. abortion providers could also be subject to civil penalties, including punitive, monetary damages. >> today the three most dangerous words in china and india are "it's a girl." we can't let that happen here. >> reporter: republican authors of the bill cite multiple studies claiming evidence of a rising number of u.s. abortions based on the sex of the fetus. but abortion rights advocates take issue with the studies. the reality is, it's hard to know the truth about such a private issue. politically, republicans are trying to turn the democrats' charge that there's a gop war on women on its head. >> this, mr. speaker, is the real war on women. >> reporter: democrats called the legislation a political stunt. >> attempts to restrict or deny access to safe abortions is harmful to women's health and would ultimately take us back to the days of back alley abortions. >> dana, the bill was defeated today, even though a majority in the house voted for it. can you explain how that could happen? >> reporter: that's right. 246 votes, erin, well above the majority. the reason it happened is because the way republicans who run the house structured this was to have a limited debate and a two-thirds majority required. so that did not happen. why did they do that? they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. they wanted to be able to highlight this issue, at least for a day to turn the war on women on its head, but also really get it out of the way fast because they still want to focus, they say, on the big issue, which is what you've been talking about this whole show, it's the economy. >> all right, thanks very much to you, dana. ahead, one of the most powerful men in the catholic church. tonight accusations he paid certain priests to leave. and barney, the purple dinosaur, is rolling the war on terror. ♪ [ woman ] it's like a magnet. pulling us together for different reasons. music. games. photos. shows. we share stories, laugh... and truly engage. it brings us closer and that is my happy place. ♪ [ male announcer ] the best family moments happen in an instant. capture them with internet explorer and a powerful dell pc. but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. the pentagon confirmed today something that many of us suspected for years. according to the defense department's captain john kirby, music is regularly used to punish prisoners at guantanamo bay. >> we subscribe to the law and to humane treatment. but, yes, music is used, again, both in a positive way and as a disincentive. i wouldn't get into characterizing exactly what type of music has been used. >> is it from barney? was it from barney? >> we do not torture. >> that's right. it's believed the pentagon forced prisoners at gitmo to listen to barney for 24 straight hours. according to a u.s. service member involved in psychological operations, quote, your brain and body functions start to slide. your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. that sounds intense. i mean these are songs meant for children, right? but after a quick listen, i'm sure you'll agree the estimation isn't very far off. ♪ won't you say you love me too ♪ >> yeah, that's