good evening, everyone, i've erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, out of bounds. mitt romney took to the air waves today to lament the tone of the election and slam his rival. >> i'm seeing some of the ads out there. i don't know what happened to the campaign of hope and change. his campaign and the people working for him have focused almost exclusively on person attacks and not at all on the issues of the day. >> personal attacks and not at all on the issues of the day. that charge actually goes both ways. both mitt romney and barack obama are guilty as sin. as those of you who watch the show know, we tried from day one to try to stop sandbox politics and find middle ground. quote, the campaign has already set records for nastiness and negativity. he says, this campaign has the sensibilities and i.q. of a typical middle school student council election. i ran for school president in eighth grade. and i lost. i ran against a kid named danny luppins. i am certain that our campaigns had higher i.q.s. and when i lost, danny nominated me head of the committee for our little school. that is now how it feels in this election for the world's most powerful job. the group that tracks ads says they've seen unprecedentedly negative. now we feel it's our duty to call out ads we feel are out of bounds. the same day, of course, that he mourned the loss of the campaigns of hope and change. >> who shares your values? president obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion. forcing religious institutions to go against their faith. >> that ad does not add up. it refers of course to the debate about contraception and obama care. the obama administration clarified the 2010 health care law. it said insurers must cover preventive health services. they said contraceptives counted in that category and that meant most health insurance plans would have to provide birth control free of charge. now, this angered many religious institutions who said they don't believe in contraception. it's important to say churches were always excluded but affiliated institutions say a georgetown university, which may employ workers of other faiths, were not excluded. after a firestorm, t obama administration caved. saying church-affiliated universities, hospitals and charities don't have to provide or pay for birth control. not everybody loves that solution. but it does make romney's ad about a war on religion off target. off target isn't close to as bad as the one this week targeting mitt romney that we found truly out of bounds. >> when mitt romney and bain closed the plant, i lost my health care and my family lost their health care. and a short time after that, my wife became ill. >> she subsequently died of cancer. as we told you all week, she did not lose her health care coverage when the plant closed down because she was always covered by her own employer. blaming mitt romney personally for her death is just plain wrong. that ad came from the super pac won by the friend of president obama. michael walman joins us. reihan salam is also here. good to see you both. >> good to be here. >> in terms of the truly nasty, what we're going to call out of bounds, goes to the super pac representing the president. but romney's one on religion seems to be at best simplistic and at worst just wrong. >> well, supposedly, there are some religions where shrill overstatement is a sin. if that's the case, then that would have been an ad like this. i'm not really entirely sure i know what the purpose of an ad like this is. calling it a war on religion is clearly such an overstatement. then the ad goes into showing him -- governor romney praising pope john paul and then being endorsed by a foreign head of state who i admire a lot, but he is a foreign head of state. seemingly in a very naked bid for a kind of particular eastern european catholic vote. catholics voted heavily for president obama last time. he won catholic -- american catholics by nine points. you can see why they would do something like this. it's such a jumble of an ad. i can't imagine they're actually going to spend a lot of money running it on television. >> reihan, it does seem this whole war on religion, the war on women, all of these charges, people have all sorts of specific issues with candidates and their point of views. to say this president is waging a war on religion, i mean, the man goes to church. that's ridiculous. >> well, the issue with the department of health and human services is a very complicated one. part of the issue is many people felt the obama administration had defined religious employers very narrowly. but of course there are a ton of institutions not just georgetown university but we're talking about soup kitchens and hospitals and -- >> funded by churches. >> right, exactly, and also receive public funds. i think the idea that acting in their conscience is something where, you know, that would be compromised in some way really struck a chord with many americans. because i think there's a view -- many people have about president obama. you saw it in the roanoke remarks. he believes the way americans work together and come together is through the state. but there are many other institutions including churches. >> i think you're great at making your side but answer this question. >> absolutely. >> war on religion. >> war -- look, i think the idea that the administration has been unduly hostile to religion and religious employers i think is a fair point to make. >> but he backed off the changes. he backed off after the three days of firestorm. whether you think he backed off because of the firestorm or not. gave a waiver. >> a temporary waiver giving these institutions a year. people who believe these institutions should be given wide berth and wide autonomy. being given this brief respite, in case you actually wind up agreeing with their policies, acting in accordance with their views, that is, the views of hhs, that's not a very attractive solution. >> but the american people have been watching barack obama as president for nearly four years and they hear this language about the war on religion and it sounds nonsensical. he's not waging a war on religion. it's hard to believe the romney campaign even believes it itself. there kwas this one controversy -- >> -- there's no way to believe it. >> there's no way to believe it. they did back down. if you remember, as a political matter, that controversy was when the gender gap began to widen massively. so it's not clear that this is some -- this is something that cuts only in one direction politically. but i think that that is, as they call, dog whistle language. that means a lot to some of the base supporters of the conservative wing of the republican party. what's interesting is why is it necessary to be sending them shoutouts right now when he should be speaking, finding many different ways to speak to undecided voters or the base? it shows with all these negative ads unfortunately both sides are spending all their efforts to kind of rev up three own base rather than speaking to a wider public? >> i mean, what i find problematic about it is the headlines. "war on religion." when you can go through serious nuanced discussions. you can have that conversation. but the ad isn't about that. the candidates out of one side of their mouth are saying we want to elevate the dialogue. then running things saying the guy killed somebody or the guy's having a war on religion. it is sort of an insult to intelligence of the voter. >> i definitely see where you're coming from on that but think the problem is that you're trying -- the fundamental reason this campaign has been negative is this. president obama has a record that i imagine if you asked him would you run to be running with unemployment this high, et cetera, he'd probably say no. he's backed into a corner. romney is also backed into a corner because he finds it difficult to talk about the substantive policies he wanted to advance as an alternative partly because he sensed those are going to be demonized so aggressively by the other side. when you don't have an election about substantive issues which frankly neither candidate wants to talk about, you get to these. >> danny, the kid, he's now a man, he was kind enough to send his picture from eighth grade. yep, that's when he beat me. >> erin, you didn't have a chance. >> look at that bilevel haircut. >> i don't remember a lot about the campaign but i know that we were not nearly as nasty. because he named me the head of the top committee when he won. >> see, that's like the kind of national unity government that pundits are craving. >> you know what -- >> that's the simpson/bowles of middle school. >> eighth grade. a lot of i.q.s were higher. calling news conferences to simplify the tax code. that doesn't add up. the top hypocrites named next. the space agency suffers a fiery failure. and our exclusive look tonight inside the temple where a madman killed six innocent people. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. ♪ this is the sound... you feel that? no. the eassist is working. right now. that's spandau ballet, man. you did this all the way to the restaurant. yeah. we were going up a hill. getting extra horsepower. from a battery-powered generator. ♪ ah, ah ah, ah, ah ♪ it's helping us conserve fuel. this is important. [ male announcer ] the all-new, 37 mpg chevy malibu eco. from new technology to old friends. chevy runs deep. would you mind if to be i go ahead of you?omer. instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank makes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. questions. when you're caring for a loved one with alzheimer's, not a day goes by that you don't have them. questions about treatment where to go for extra help, how to live better with the disease. so many questions, where do you start? alzheimers.gov. the answers start here. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. our second story "outfront," tax hypocrites. democrats and republicans have have spent a lot of time calling for a simplified tax code. they want to eliminate deductions for example. >> we do have a lot of loopholes. >> america needs to have significant tax simplification. we need to make it simpler and easier to comply with america's tax codes. >> the tax codes are larded down with so many special interests goodies. >> interesting we picked those individuals because those grand statements don't always add up. especially when it comes to pushing tax breaks that benefit them. "outfront" tonight, tim carney, senior political columnist for "the washington examiner." good to see you. you lean right. you're being aggressive here. a lot of people on the right. let's get straight to it. let's start with marco rubio. he has said again and again he wants to simplify the tax code. but what's he doing? >> well, he is pushing for a special tax deduction just for people who win olympics medals. because the u.s. olympic committee will give you cash payment, $10,000, $20,000, if you win a medal. he thinks that income, unlike other prize income, ought to be free of taxes. this is certainly a special interest carveout for people who happen to be very popular. >> right, and, you know, it's all about popularity right now, especially if you might be vp, right? let's talk about the democratic side. democratic senator, we just saw him there in those sound bites. ron wyden. >> one of my favorite detectives. he's liberal but he tries to find solutions to problems. he was touting how he snuck into the tax extender bill a special tax credit for electric motorcycles. he said, well, heck, two of the biggest electric motorcycle companies happen to be in oregon, my state, and i'm not going to give up the tax credits for the guys in my state. >> wow, electric motorcycles. i wonder if they've gotten to the point where they perform as well as the quote/unquote real thing. >> buy one with the tax credit and find out, erin. >> i don't know if that will be enough to get me to do it. kristi noem. she's also called for tax reform, cutting spending. but what tax credit is she advocating? >> for the production tax credit for wind energy. windmills have always depended on special subsidies. that's up to -- set to expire this year. so without special legislation to extend it, it will be gone. and she's been pushing. she's been writing letters. bringing together bipartisan coalition to save this tax credit. while at the same time, saying, oh, we need to make sure the tax code is clean without other credits or deductions. >> it may surprise a lot of people who in the conventional way things would say republican congresswoman pushing for green energy tax credits, how does that add up? >> well, a lot ends up working out on a regional basis. you've got ethanol tax credits. that was more of a regional thing and party. wind and solar, republicans are willing to attack obama for giving a subsidy but then will give out their own subsidy. >> thank you. reporting on some of the hypocrisy we're seeing in washington now. still "outfront," a computer glitch. there are a number of reasons why the margin of error is so dangerously thing. a bizarre discovery. a group of people who have been living underground for years. 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[ cheers and applause ] last week, a trading firm called night capital lost $440 million in 45 minutes thanks to a software glitch. it basically caused knight's computers to start buying and sell stocks like crazy. knight capital didn't have enough money to handle the error and the 45-minute mistake put i on the edge of bankruptcy. a group of investors poured money in. they were lucky to survi. a lot of people are in shock this happened. they say normally this would be caught in a few minutes by a computer. knight's error was truly colossal. it highlights something important. computers dominate markets. trusting the system. you can see when you look at the new york stock exchange floor, i remember when it was full. this is a tight shot so you can't see the point i'm trying to make but there's no one there anymore. traders -- trades are executed by computers in fractions of a second. traders need any edge they can. going so far as to put their computer servers next to an exchange server. if your computer's here, the signal has to travel further. it's quite the time saver. that's the number tonight. ten. that's how many microseconds they save. if you execute a trade in chicago, for every mile the data you're sending travels on its way to new york, you save ten millionths of a second. it's a small amount of time but in this day and age it translates to big money. pretty frightening. now, our third story "outfront." russian police discovered members of a rogue sect of islam living deep under ground. with more than 2 dozen children, some of whom had never seen daylight. their leader called himself a prophet which is against the teachings of islam. our matthew chance investigates. >> reporter: erin, an astonishing discovery in russia where an obscure islamist religious sect has been found to have forced its members, including children, to live underground for more than a decade. the authorities in russia have charged the sect leaders and taken the children described as dirty but in good health into care. russian police say 27 children, along with more than 30 adults, lived in catacomb-like cells. some of the children had never seen the light of day. >> translator: the premises consist of cells without natural light located in the foundation and dug into the ground as it was said in the official report. not only adults were living on these premises but also children. >> reporter: at least 19 of the children, aged between 1 and 17 years old, were removed by the authorities. some placed in care. others in hospital. >> translator: the children were in satisfactory condition. the children were all fed. although they were dirty. upon receiving them, we washed them. they have undergone a full examination. all the russian specialists have examined them and taken all the analysis. tomorrow, the full analysis will be finish and we will give our final conclusion about the condition of their health. >> reporter: the islamist sect was unearthed last week in a suburb of the city of kazan in russia's mainly muslim region during the investigation into militant groups. amid chance of defiance, police detained some of its members, including its reclusive 84-year-old leader. saying he refused to recognize russian laws or the authority of mainstream muslim leaders. the raid on the sect's house came amid a wider investigation into militant groups in the area. as i mentioned, following a number of high-profile attacks against leading muslim figures in the region. there is no suggestion, though that this bizarre sect is in any way connected. erin. >> thanks to matthew. very bizarre story. well, still "outfront," nasa gets a big win billions of miles away and suffers a big loss much closer to home today. and next we see for the first time inside the temple where a gunman shot and murdered six people. t in the way. not anymore. t in the way. ink, the small business card from ch