in the yankees pivotal game against the rays? the question is who would take jeter's name in vain? it is all next on "way too early." >> i'm willie geist this is "way too early" live from the national mall in washington, where we are all getting loose for the "morning joe" bipartisan health challenge in a couple hours, democratic and republican leaders will walk together at the behest of one mika brzezinski to promote her agenda of healthy living and fighting obesity. among the power walkers with us today, jvalerie jarrett, pennsylvania governor ed rendell and kirsten gillibrand. joe and i will head for the airport as soon as the exercising begins. glad you are watching us this

morning on msnbc or listening to us live on the radio. shoot us an e-mail or text the word awake followed by your response to 622639. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this thursday, september 16th. a lot to tell you about today, including another wayne for a palin-backed candidate this one in new hampshire. plus, i'm still stuck in the old tv news convention of wearing pants on the air. no such inhibition for this newsman in slovenia. we'll have the latest pantsless headlines in just a few minutes. first the news live at 5:30 a.m. here in the nation's capital of washington. establishment republicans are now starting to pledge their support for christine o'donnell's general election campaign in delaware. after initially turning their backs on the tea party

candidate. following her win at senate primary tuesday, senate republicans said she would not be getting much help from them. but yesterday, national republican senatorial committee chair, john cornyn said in a written statement that o'donnell would have the support of the nrsc, as well as the maximum $42,000 donation from that organization. republican national committee chairman michael steele who yesterday kicked off his fire pelosi bus tour in virginia told republicans it's time to rally behind christine o'donnell. >> i don't know if she can win until we try. how can you claim defeat before you attempt victory? this makes no sense. it makes no sense. stop it. stop it. >> meanwhile, o'donnell herself is fighting back against those questioning her chances. specifically against former bush administration adviser karl rov

rove. >> but i am perplexed by what is going on with karl rove. all he has do is go to my website and he can see those accusations that he is continuing to put out are not true. i am very perplexed. i wonder does he want a democrat in that seat? >> still, the obama administration is seizing on the chance to paint o'donnell's victory as bad for the republican party and good for democrats. >> if you look at what people like karl rove or people like the state gop chairman have said, the republicans in delaware nominated something that they don't think can win or as one of them said couldn't be elected dog catcher. and yesterday, former president bill clinton quipped a lot of republicans today make former president george w. bush look like a liberal, a thinly

vailed shot at ms. o'donnell. and kelly ayotte is officially the winner of the new hampshire primary seat. she defeated the tea party favorite by a slim margin of under 1700 votes yesterday. after an extended night of vote counting, despite the close margin of victory, he said he will not request a recount. ayotte faces paul potis in the replace to face retiring senator judd gregg. >> the november election seemingly can't come soon enough for some voters. a new cbs news "new york times" poll this morning shows some republicans desperately want new blood in the building behind me. 34% of them said the representative deserves to be re-elected this year. 55% of them said it's time for someone new.

58% say they disapprove of what democrats are doing in congress, and 30% approve. according to the same survey, more americans disapprove than approve of president obama. his approval rating stands steady at about 45%. president obama continuing his call on congress yesterday to pass an extension of bush-era tax cuts for the middle class. standing next to members of his cabinet and his economic team outside the white house yesterday, the president criticized republicans for what he said was foot dragging on legislation that would lift the economy. >> once again, leaders across the aisle are saying, no. they want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of the americans. we simply can't afford that even as we debate whether it's wise to spend 700 billion on tax

breaks for the wealthy, doesn't it make sense for us to move forward with the tax cuts that we all agree on? >> meanwhile, former federal reserve chair alan greenspan weighed in on the issue yesterday. he said the government should let the tax cuts expire at the end of the year to get a handle on the deficit. almost five months after the catastrophic explosion of the deep water horizon rig in the gulf of mexico, bp says it is now just days away from permanently sealing its ruptured well. national incident commander thad allen who orchestrated the federal government's response to the disaster, said yesterday he expects to declare the well dead by this weekend no oil has leaked into the gulf since july 15th when the well was successfully capped. but that lid was only temporary. and testifying before a parliamentary committee in london yesterday, bp chief executive tony hayward defended the oil giant saying there's no evidence that the accident in the gulf was the result of

cost-cutting measures at bp. hayward added that safety lapses did not point to any fundamental weaknesses at the operation but were merely administrative oversights. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is criticizing the threat of new sanctions against his country saying iran can survive without the aid of the united states and its allies sayi saying, in effect, bring it on. those comments were made in an interview with andrea mitchell yesterday. he also said his country is justified in barring further visits by u.n. atomic inspectors. >> translator: under the pressures of the united states and the allies and the expressed political views, this is not a technical approach, and legal approach towards the question. and it is part of the hostility of the united states against our

people. >> ahmadinejad due in new york at the u.n. for his annual visit next week. still ahead on "way too early" live from washington, derek jeter, a man of unimpeachable character, pulls a fast one in the yankees crucial series for the rays. we'll show you how his acting job influenced the playoff race in major league baseball. yes, he fessed up to it afterwards. and christine o'donnell on the nazis. a clip from her past comes back to haunt the most talked about politician in the country right now. that story and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back.

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>> welcome back to washington, d.c. we are here on the national mall this morning getting ready for the "morning joe" bipartisan health challenge. mika brzezinski has dragged me, joe and every big shot in washington here to walk in a circle or a square, i guess, around the mall to fight obesity. we will do it. let's check weather now from nbc meteorologist bill karins back in new york. willie, how are you? >> good. >> how did you get out of this. >> there's hurricanes. that's what i said. i have to track the hurricanes. >> that's always a good excuse. got to use that. >> worked for me this time, at least. we are tracking karl and the two

hurricanes out in the atlantic. karl is coming through mexico and the bay of campeche this could go into a hurricane once again tomorrow. mexico could get hit twice by this storm. here is the path, texas, south texas, you like fine. all of the winds will remain south of you. the huge storm is igor. this is a monster storm, not just intense but also huge in size. like the size of texas big. this storm is like a turtle out there in the atlantic. barely moving. only going 8 miles per hour. it will take another four days to get to bermuda. we will watch this thing spin and churn the water up. the only thing that is in doubt is how strong it will be and devastating it will be for bermuda. as for now, it is scheduled to go right over the top of the island as a category 3 or 2 hurricane. that will do significant damage. for the east coast it just means big waves. a lot of rain up in michigan

early today that will head through new york state and pennsylvania during the day today. the important forecast for the 3k, 67 degrees, partly cloudy. make sure you have the gear on today. expect all the marathon gear. >> i wouldn't use the word fun in conjunction with this. if you go to laguardia now, you could be here in time for the bipartisan health challenge. >> i'll check on the flights. >> we'll see you in a few. yankees and rays playing the final game of big three-game series fighting for first place in the a.l. east. controversy in the seventh. yankees down by one. it appears derek jeter gets hit in the hand on a pitch from chad qualls. the umpire and trainer come over. jeter shaking his hand. that stings. but the rays players are furious because they know what happened. after a meeting of the umpires, jetter gets first base, but

watch the replay, it ends the end of the bat. joe maddon is furious, he gets tossed. granderson hits a two-run home run to right, puts the yankees up 3-2, but there was justice, bottom of the same inning, dan johnson a two-run home run to right field, his second home run of the game. the rays won the game 4-3. after the game, jeter admitted that he acted to get on base saying "i'm not going to tell the ump i'm not going to first. it's part of the game. my job is to get on base." yankees lost eight of the last ten games now. the rays are up by a half game in the a.l. east. let's recap that highlight. the national league reds and d'backs, pete rose, there he is again watching his old team. bottom of the ninth, reds lead by two. adam laroche, high fly ball deep

to right. it looks like it's out, but watch this catch. going up and over. take a look, that's jay bruce over the fence. reds shocking the world. they are up by eight games on the cardinals in the nl central. an update on the reggie bush heisman trophy situation. on tuesday bush announced he would be returning his 2005 heisman award in light of allegations that he and his family took improper cash during his time as a collegiate player at usc. yesterday the heisman trust announced it would not give the award to anyone else, instead leaving the title vacant for the 2005 season. the man second in line for the 2005 award, now tennessee titans quarterback vince young tweeted this statement. reggie will continue to be the 2005 award recipient and i will continue to be honored to have been in the 2005 heisman campaign with such a talented athlete.

lebron james did not help his image much by moving to miami. according to a new popularity poll, he is now one of the country's most hated athletes a survey of over 500 sports personalities revealed lebron at number six on the dislike list. he suffered a 41% drop in positive rating since january. at number five on the list, kobe bryant. he won his fifth nba championship with the lakers last year. number four and three, chad ochocinco and terrell owens, and number two, tiger woods. you know what he's been up to the last year or so. the most hated athlete in the country, still -- get over it -- philadelphia eagles quarterback, michael vick, now three years out from pleading guilty to dogfighting. he is the most disliked athlete in the country. lebron, tiger, michael vick voted the most unpopular

athletes. the company conducted that survey of many, many people. those are the numbers you had right there. coming up, republicans get their story straight on christine o'donnell, suddenly lining up to support her after mocking her win in delaware. we'll show you an old piece of tape from o'donnell's past that might start those republican headaches all over again. later on "morning joe," it's the bipartisan health challenge. joe and mika -- >> it's so great. >> they are loosening up over here. we're on the national mall. joe looks great. >> awesome. >> peak, physical condition. looks like he's 17 again. amazing. republican and democratic heavy hitters joining us to promote healthy living. many of them will be doing it in unsightly shorts. we'll be right back. you look good, joe. how are you getting to a happier place? running there?

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we're going down because we are overweight. we are obese. morbidly, most of this country. >> my food pyramid at the top are fats and oils. let me ask you in this food pyramid, where do soft drinks fit in. >> just get rid of soda pop. we don't need it. >> you go down to the playground, you used to get a 5 cent coke out of the machine.

>> that's a long time ago. >> you may as well eat two milky ways while you're at it. i'll see you at my bipartisan health challenge. you will walk with me side by side? >> i walk with you every day, mika. >> there goes your next election. we are taking the show on the road to washington, d.c. mika, did you hear that? pat buchanan used to drink a coca-cola every day and he almost became president of the united states. >> it's time for pat to evolve. >> we are here to bring awareness to obesity to this country and get congress moving towards a solution. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends, that obesity costs the u.s. economy at least $215 billion a year. that's the finding of a new brookings institution study which says those costs include lost productivity, absenteeism, disability and premature debt.

nearly one-third of american adults are obese. >> let's huddle around the water cooler to dig back in to christine o'donnell this is from a 1998 appearance from bill maher's old show "politically incorrect." the subject was religion. the question was what would you do if you had to lie to hitler? >> lie whether it be a lie or an exaggeration is disrespect to whoever you are exaggerating or lying to. >> quite the opposite, it can be respect. >> it's not respecting reality. >> what if it comes to you in the middle of the second world war and he says do you any jewish people in your house? and you lie to him. >> can you say that again? >> i don't think -- i believe that if i were in that situation -- >> answer the question.

>> i am. if i were in that situation, god would provide a way -- >> oh, shut up. >> to do the right thing. i believe that. >> god is not there. hitler is there, you're there. >> you never have to practice deception. he always provides an out. >> bill maher is so sensitive. oh, shut up he says. here is ms. o'donnell's response yesterday to the release of that clip what i was doing then was not running for office. i was helping bill maher get ratings. i don't see the relevance in this campaign because the campaign is about getting our country back on track. really, she has no explanation. let's talk news. if joe and i had our way, we would wear no pants on "morning joe" each and every morning. we are forced to by some law that fcc -- standards no such standards in slovenia apparently. check out this news anchor this is your leading slovenian broadcast. he pushed back from his desk to

talk to his producer, turns out he was just wearing boxer shorts no pants necessary when delivering the news in slovenia. one more for you from the dumb criminal file. if you are going to rob a store in a darth vader mask, put on the darth vader mask before you enter the store. this guy got into the store first, stared up into the camera, then he goes to the darth vader mask. he robbed the 7-eleven joint. the police said "this is one of the world's dumbest criminals." clearly displaying his face before putting on the darth vader mask. they expect to catch this gentleman in short order. still ahead on "way too early," while you were awake, your texts and e-mails are next. and it's time for the bipartisan

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. number one story on msnbc.com right now, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad telling andrea mitchell muslims do not hate americans. glad we resolved that number three on the list, joe biden talking about that race in delaware. interesting comments on what happened there. we asked you at the top of the show what you could be doing awake on this glorious morning, the morning of the bipartisan health challenge, alex has some responses what are they saying? >> david says i'm car bloating to sit in my office and watch people walk. >> i'm going to do the same thing. i will sit under a tent. >> franklin says i tuned in hoping to see willie wearing an old school l.a. gear jogging suit. >> i am going to go