tigers cooked? it's "way too early" for this. good morning, i'm willie geist and this way too early, the show that puts this network on its back every morning and frankly, it's getting a little tired. glad you're up watching us or listening live on sirius xm radio. tweet me at @williegeist 1 or do what blackberry users could not do yesterday, text the word awake followed by your response to 622639. a lot to tell you about today, including an international trade deal being called this morning, the most important since nafta in 1994. not everyone is thrilled about it, though. plus, jimmy fallon shows some skills, impersonating half the republican field in a single

sketch. that clip, a bit later in the show. but first, let's get to the news, live at 5:30 a.m. at 30 rock in new york city the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows republican presidential field has new front-runner. the surging ceo of godfather's pizza, herman cain now leads all candidates according to the poll. cain receiving 27% support. look at that righthand column. he's up 22 points since august. the poll also shows former massachusetts governor mitt romney holding steady and almost within the margin of error of herman cain. texas governor, rick perry, look at the slide, 16% in late august he was at 38%. according to the same poll, cain wildly popular with the base, 72% of conservatives give him a favorable rating. very popular among self-identified tea partiers. in the most recent "washington

post"/abc poll, romney was still in the lead with 25%, followed by cain and perry at 16%. yesterday while campaigning at the 99 restaurant in concord, new hampshire, cain discussed his recent surge in the polls and the claim of some that he's the republican flavor of the month. >> six weeks ago, there was some pundits who were saying i should just drop out. well, they don't know herman cain. i'm feeling great. i'm feeling great, not only because of the surge, but i'm feeling great because a lot of people are taking a second look and they're saying, maybe this longshot is not such a longshot. the difference between the flavor of the week and haggen daaz, blackwalnut, because it tastes good all the time. >> cain addressed criticism of his 9-9-9 tax plan that was brought up on tuesday's

government debate. >> perry and bachmann were trying to be cute. governor romney was trying to do a put-down because his is so complicated and mine is so simple. but i think it was the one by senator santorum that particularly bothered me. when he did the little thing about asking people -- how many of you all want a sales tax, how many of you all want this? the audience was smarter than he was. because it's a package. 9-9-9. what did he try to do? he tried to get the audience it react on each one of those individually, okay? and it back-fired quite frankly. >> cain's plan flat tax 9% for businesses, 9% for incox and a 9% national sales tax. in a head-to-head matchup again president obama, the poll finds cain still trailing the president by 11 points.

mitt romney remaining the most formidable candidate in a head-to-head matchup, essentially in a statistical tie with president obama. the poll finds the president's approval rating in the negative, 51% of americans disapprove of the way he's handling his job. 44% say they approve. this comes as the obama re-election team sharpened its focus on mitt romney. senior obama campaign strategist david axlerod held a conference call with reporters, during saying former massachusetts governor romney is stunningly inconsistent. adding that quote presidential campaigns are mris for the soul. romney netted some support from a key member of the republican establishment yesterday. >> i continue to be impressed with mitt romney's performance in these debates. he's cool, calm, collected, he's quick, he's agile. i think he would do well going up against president obama in

the fall. >> former florida governor, jeb bush, talking about mitt romney. mitt romney heads to seattle for a fundraiser later today. a congressional stalemate as ended, on the issue of free trade. as both the house and senate approved agreements with colombia, south korea and panama yesterday. negotiations on the deals were completed in 2007, but the votes necessary to pass the plans were secured only after modifications were made by the obama administration, labor unions and some democrats not excited about the plan saying it will cost america jobs. the obama administration says just the opposite is true. this comes as the president continues his fight over jobs. declaring that he quote, will not take no for an answer on the bill. the president blasting senate republicans for a filibuster that led to a defeat of his jobs proposal. speaking to a white house forum on latino heritage. president obama said despite the setback his administration will keep up pressure on congress to insure the plan passes in some

form. his comments come as the new nbc poll show overwhelming support for the american jobs act. with nearly two-thirds of respondents, 63% saying they favor the president's plan. 32% say they oppose it. yesterday house majority leader, eric cantor, who previously declared the bill dead on arrival, praised the senate's decision. >> the senate's action proved that the month-long campaign that the white house has been on to promote the president's bill failed. so i do think that now hopefully we can, we can see through what the activity has been about. and try to get to work for the people. >> now some senate republicans are moving forward with their own proposal to jump-start job growth, according to politico, obtained a draft of the plan called the real american jobs act, a twist on the president's bill. the republican draft proposal includes targeting labor and

environmental regulations, it enacts a balanced budget amendment, lowers corporate individual tax rates, encouraging energy production and expands free trade. meanwhile, an event for police and firefighters in flint, michigan, vice president joe biden reiterated the president's calls to fight for the jobs plan stressing the importance to keeping the united states cities safe. >> we're going to come back and back and back and make them vote on every single solitary piece of this bill. let them explain to the american people why we should depreciate jets in five years and lay off 10,000 firefighters. and police officers. this is a perfect storm, man. and when a perfect storm is reduce buckets, reduce manpower, decimated neighborhoods and the rising crime. that is a witch's brew. that is a mixture for a cancer in the city. >> senate democrats reportedly

now trying to break up the president's bill in the hopes of getting it through congress piece by piece. the obama administration is now stepping up its pressure on iran in the wake of the country's alleged plot to assassinate saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.s. officials say the foiled plan may have violated a united nations treaty protecting diplomats and could escalate the case to an international court. white house press secretary, jay carney pledged that the u.s. will increase efforts to isolate iran. >> in this arena, we take no options off the table. but in dealing with iran, we are clearly focused on working through economic measures, sanctions, as well as diplomatic measures to isolate iran. and we've had, we think, substantial success doing that. >> speaking in washington yesterday, secretary of state hillary clinton urged other nations to join the u.s. in condemning iran's threat to international security. secretary clinton also made a point of noting that iran had agreed to the u.n. treaty.

>> this plot very fortunately disrupted by the excellent work of our law enforcement and intelligence professionals, was a flagrant violation of international and u.s. law. and a dangerous escalation of the iranian government's longstanding use of political violence and sponsorship of terrorism. this kind of reckless act undermines international norms and the international system. iran must be held accountable for its actions. >> secretary clinton's comments come as a numb of experts are expressing doubt that iran was actually behind the assassination plot. with a suspect in custody, many question why iran would delegate such a sensitive job to an iranian-american who is a former used car dealer and use a hit team from a mexican cartel.

ending one of the biggest terrorism cases since the september 11th attacks. the underwear bomber admitted in court that he tried to blow up an airplane on its final approach into the detroit metro airport on christmas day 2009. the 25-year-old nigerian and self-described al qaeda operative said he would plead guilty. saying he tried to avenge the killing of muslims. police in cal said an armed man walked into a busy hair salon outside of long beach killing eight people and severely wounding another in the community of seal beach. the suspect was later caught less than a half-mile away at a traffic stop, carrying multiple weapons and wearing body armor. the man seen in this video has been identified as scott dekri. no motive has been released, but

according to neighbors, he was in the the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife who worked at the salon. yesterday a frustrating day for 70 million people who rely on their blackberry smartphone force communication. what began a few days ago as a service disruption in europe in which a router switch fail and a back-up system crashed spread to north america. experts say catch-up from the data traffic jam may last through the weekend. the timing could not be worse for blackberry. with major competitor, iphone, releasing a new instant messaging app. some loyal customers say, this is the last straw with blackberry after a string of outage and device glitches in the last year the company's stock has fallen 65%, closing yesterday at just under $24 a share. blackberry is hurting and its company, r.i.m., as well. but markets were up yesterday on hopes of progress toward a european debt deal. let's take an early look at the markets as we get all up in your business this morning.

cnbc's steve sedgewick is live in london. >> a very good day to you. the u.s. markets had a good run yesterday and at one point the dow jones industrials got itself back into positive territory for the year, it was up about .5% for the year, it came back a little bit and ended the session down .5% for the year and still up in the session. pepsico is one of the companies kicking off the earnings season, good numbersed a good look. on the other side of the coin, alcoa, ate aluminum group, shares down 2.4%. the numbers disappointing. today we've got google and jp morgan chase, back to you. the front page of the "wall street journal" for blackberry maker, cries cries mounts, the journal calling it a crisis. the rangers and tigers go to extra innings in game four and unless be cruz does the damage with his bat and right arm, carrying the texas squad to within a game of the world

series. plus jimmy fallon makes one handsome woman. fallon as a bachmann and a bunch of other presidential contenders, as "way too early" comes right back. [ male announcer ] meet rachel and annie.

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and then it's going to improve for the weekend, so i guess we really can't complain much. it looks like we're it for a decent weekend in many areas of the country. but first, travel issues today and friday. first things first, boston, hartford, providence, you probably have the steadiest and worst morning commute with the rain moving through. the leaves are falling off the treefs and it will make things slippery with the wet roads. down in d.c., some showers, but not a large concentration. during date, we're not going to see a lot of sunshine. another umbrella day. today and tomorrow, chicago you'll deal with the light rain. minor delays around o'hare and midway. southeast witness have thunderstorms, middle of the country where the great weather is. all in all, i don't think we can complain too much. >> sun tomorrow, right? >> no, saturday. >> listen up. >> i was listening, trying to push it up a day. >> go to your dvr and remind a little bit. game four of the alcs,

rangers and tigers last night in detroit. if detroit wins, we've got a tied series. texas wins on the road, they're a game away from the world series. the game started two hours late because of a rain delay. we go to the third inning, on a wet detroit night. miguel cabrera, down the left field, scores a couple of runs, bounce it is off the wall. tigers take an early lead in the fifth. the hero of game three, nelson cruz at the play. a shot back to rick porcello makes a nice play. 1-6-3 double play. in the seventh inning, the tigers even the score, down a run. brandon inge, a solo home run to left. tigers tie the game at 3-3. next inning, tigers men on the corners, two outs, dellman young, a deep wide ball to right field, miguel cabrera is tagging, watch the gun on nelson cruz, granted, it's miguel cabrera, one hop to the plate, he's 0u9 by six feet.

beautiful throw by cruz, he wasn't done. stay tuned in a second. score tied into extra innings in the 11, tigers facing detroit closer, jose valverde, perfect 49-49 save opportunities. this gone ahead on the previous batter, mike napoli to make it 4-3. and then cruz, a three-run bomb, rangers win in extra, 7-3, texas takes a 3-1 series lead with three shots to win one more game. game five this afternoon in detroit. the tigers, texas could close it out. to the nlcs, game three in st. louis, brewers and cardinals, two teams tied a game apiece, in the first inning, cardinals get on the board early. a bloop and catcy can't get there and the ball gets by ryan brawn. rafael furcal comes in. and the next batter, albert pujols been on fire, hitting .646. a deep fly ball, bounces into the stand for a ground rule

double. bringing in another run. st. louis scores four runs in the first inning. brewers came back to score three, but the final held up, cardinals win 4-3 rks they play game four tonight in st. louis. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," our new nbc poll has herman cain sitting atop the republican presidential field, up 20 points from just over a month ago. mitt romney is exactly where he was in late august. so should the front-runner be concerned? we'll kick it around with our "morning joe" crew. and we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch jimmy fallon do the man who just keeps sliding according to the same poll. jimmy as perry, next on "way too early." ♪ ooh baby, looks like you need a little help there ♪ ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help.

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as you know, if you have a blackberry and 70 million of you do, a massive worldwide outage swept the globe yesterday. it could lead to a continued decline in sales of the product for its parent company, whose stock down 65% in the last year. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends, research in motion maker of the barackberry, sold 10.6 million phones in the latest quarter. but the number is down from 12.1 million from the same quarter just last year. let's huddle up around the water cooler to watch jimmy fallon impersonate the republican

presidential field one by one. beginning with mitt romney. spoofing the well kwaufed candidate for flip-flopping. >> hello i'm mitt romney no, i'm not. i have a job plan to help deal with our nation's is soaring unemployment and this plan will bring jobs back to our country. >> that jobs plan won't work. >> i'm a patriot, and i love the red, white and blue. >> i also love the colors orange and purple. >> of course, magenta's the best. >> send me to washington so we can finally put regular hard-working people above these greedy corporations. >> corporations are people. >> i'm mitt romney and i approved this message. >> no, i don't. >> hi, i'm michele bachmann and i want to be your president. i know that thunder is the sound of god bowling with the angels. i know that the only way to save

the economy is to print a bajillion dollar bill and then go to a target and buy a pack of gum and then they have to give you all that change. lastly, i'm ready to stand toe to toe with china and not blink. i never blink, i haven't blinked since 2004. >> i'm rick perry. and as a former front-runner, i have one question for our great, great country. how did i screw this up? am i supposed to be -- don't mess with texas or mess with you, whatever y'all want, you can mess or not mess. texas doesn't get mess, gets mess, i don't care, i need y'all back. i'm going to dr. oz and get a prostate exam, i'll learn how to juggle. teach me how to dougior, america, was it the corn dog thing? was it that thing? i don't even want to eat a corn dog, i don't care. i'll eat whatever y'all like.

i'm rick perry and are you breaking up with me? [ laughter ] >> what a display. by the talented jimmy fallon. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your tweets and texts are just moments away. the postal service is critical to our economy-- delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers.

the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. and people. and the planes can seem the same. so, it comes down to the people. because: bad weather, the price of oil those are every airline's reality. and solutions will not come from 500 tons of metal and a paintjob. they'll come from people. delta people. who made us the biggest airline in the world. and then decided that wasn't enough. but only allstate gives safe drivers more. a bonus check every six months they drive accident-free. so what's it going to be? eenie, meanie, miney...

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number one story on msnbc.com, when we told you about at the top of the show, the death toll at yesterday's shooting at a california hair salon now at eight. police and witnesses report a custody dispute between the gunman and his ex-wife, one of the people killed in seal beach, california. we asked you at the top of the show, what you're doing up and our producer, rob gifford has a couple of answers. >> somebody named jm sullivan writes, getting liquored up, having perry 2012 tattoo removed today. >> maybe you got it back in august when his poll numbers were up and now his numbers are down. al up in maine writes up all night texting myself every few minutes to make sure