th pantheon of great quarterbacks. mitt romney has won the state in a runaway. the question is, where does the race and specifically newt gingrich go from here? and president obama in an nbc interview before the super bowl declares he deserves a second term, saying the country cannot switch courses in the middle of an economic recovery the question is, will he get that second term? it's "way too early" for this. good morning. i'm willie geist and this is "way too early," the show that wishes it laid even 100 bucks on a safety being the first scoring play in the super bowl. i'd be retiring in the keys somewhere this morning. glad you're up with us. shoot me an e-mail at waytooearly@msnbc.com or tweet me @williegeist1.

or text awake to 622639. a lot going on today, including the deteriorating situation in syria where china and russia have voted to block u.n. action. we'll have the very latest. plus, clint eastwood in the super bowl ad that has many republicans fantasizing about him getting into the presidential race. the world's about to hear the roar of our engines says clint. the best of the ads later in the show. first let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city where all the news is, of course, about the new york giants. the front page of "the new york post" calling them champs with a photograph of eli manning. wouldn't you know it, the "daily news" has spread champs as well for eli manning. four years after stunning the undefeated new england patriots in super bowl xlii, eli and the giants are champions once again. the fourth quarter again belonged to eli. this was the play of the game.

down two points in the fourth quarter with 3:45 left on the clock. manning leading his team downfield. this is mario manningham on the first play of the drive, making the catch, a beautiful throw and catch. also getting those two feet inbounds. they reviewed it and it stood. a huge passing play. the giants march the ball down to the 6 yard line. this was a strange play. the patriots let ahmad bradshaw score the touchdown. he had an instinct to go down and let the clock run down but his football instincts scored the touchdown. here is the last throw, it's tipped up, ron gronkowski might have had a shot at it. but he has a bad ankle. couldn't get to the ball. eli manning wins his second super bowl mvp award. full highlights and postgame interviews ahead in sports.

also, jimmy fallon had a live show afterwards, getting giants players to do some things i don't think they knew they'd be doing when they started their day. to politics. mitt romney is 3 for 5. tomorrow it's minnesota and colorado. new polling suggests the party has notify given up on the other candidates in the fight. according to ppp, public policy polling, romney leads in colorado with 40%, rick santorum follows up 22 points from just december at 26%. newt gingrich has dropped 19 points. he's down to 18%. ron paul there at 12. that's inside the state of colorado. in minnesota, santorum now in a statistical tie with mitt romney. santorum up 12 points in just two weeks after dedicating his campaign efforts to those caucus states. gingrich and ron paul follow just outside the margin of error of the top two candidates. these polls were conducted before romney's decisive victory

in nevada. before heading to colorado for a final campaign push, he celebrated in las vegas. he focused his attention directly on president obama. >> three years ago a newly elected president obama told america that if congress approved his plan to borrow nearly $1 trillion, he would hold unemployment below 8%. it hasn't been below 8% since. this week he's been trying to take a bow for 8.3% unemployment. not so fast, mr. president. this is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew and if you take into account all the people who are struggling for work or have just stopped looking, the real unemployment rate is over 15%. mr. president, america has also had enough of your kind of help. >> romney more than doubled the support of gingrich inside

nevada. the numbers are appointing to an enthusiasm gap who has been out there for some time among republicans. 89% of precincts reporting. there are still 11% that haven't reported. it's monday, romney took in just over 15,000 votes in the nevada caucuses. he had 15,000 total. romney won state in nevada with nearly 23,000 votes. a sign republicans are not so energized about his candidacy or this race in general. at least in nevada. looking at the meefious contest, the associated press reports turnout was strongest when people were supporting someone other than romney. in florida where romney won 46% of the vote, overall turnout was down significantly from four years ago. a county-by-county look at the state shows turnout was up where gingrich did well and down where romney dominated the vote. gingrich is dismissing

speculation he might drop out of the race. in a rare press conference following saturday's caucuses, former house speaker vowed to continue all the way through the convention in tampa. >> there's one story that came out today that i just want to put to rest, hopefully for the next few months, i am a candidate for president of the united states. i will be a candidate for president of the united states. we will go to tampa. what happens is, every primary day or caucus day the romney headquarters in boston sends out the rumor that they believe i will withdraw, which of course is their greatest fantasy. i'm not going to withdraw. i am actually pretty happy with where we are. i think the contrast between governor romney and me is going to get wider and wider and clearer and clearer over the next few weeks. >> as the republican con tenned iters battle for the nomination, president obama is making his own case to be e-elected, speaking to matt lauer before the super bowl yesterday, he reflected on comments he made to

lauer three years ago where he said his presidency would be a one-term proposition if he did not turn the economy around. >> i deserve a sec term but we're not done. look, when you and i sat down, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. in fact we had found out just a few days before we sat down that we lost that month 750,000 jobs. now we're creating 250,000. we created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months. we've created the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990 but we're not finished. >> president obama suggests a republican win in november could throw off the country's economic progress. big story continues out of syria. a failed u.n. resolution on that country may be only emboldening the brutal government crackdown that western powers had intended to stop with a u.n. vote. forces loyal to the syrian regime vowing to step up at salt against the opposition there after china and russia,

together, vetoed a u.n. action to push president assad from power. human rights groups say at least 200 people were killed at attacks over the weekend. the obama administration is now exploring other options to stop the bloodshed. including a potential plan to rally nations in a coordinated effort to assist the opposition. secretary of state hillary clinton called the chinese and russian veto at the u.n. a travesty. >> we have to increase diplomat pressure on the assad regime and work to convince those people around president assad that he must go. and that there has to be a recognition of that and a new start to try to form a government that will represent all of the people of syria. >> rebel fighters, many of whom defected from the military, are stepping up their

counterassault. their mission has largely gone from protecting civilians to aing toing government positions. still ahead on "way too early," we will go back to the super bowl. ahmad bradshaw scoring one of the strangest touchdowns in super bowl history, reluctantly falling backwards into the end zone. full highlights and reaction just ahead. madonna puts on a show at halftime. pretty good reviews even though one of her guest performers did flip off the entire world. that's all when we come back. arthur ashe who campaign for justice from the south bronx to johannesburg has died of aids at the age of 49. he's being remembered by friends and fans for burying both victory and tragedy with grace.

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look at that, 5:43 in the morning, empire state building all lit up in giants blue for the super bowl champs. let's get a check of the weather from nbc meteorologist todd santos, in for bill karins who blacked out at his own super bowl party last night and hasn't been heard from since. >> he's one of the millions who will be calling in sick just because it's the day after, win or lose. a very good morning to you. a quiet setup weatherwise. noticing something showing up on the radar across the northeast. it's mainly a little bit of light snowfall. i drop the clouds off of there, at least to give you an idea of where you're dealing with light snow. not much of a travel issue at all. go from boston back through detroit, chicago, d.c., all quiet. that's how we're starting off this morning. back towards buffalo, even here

in new york, 34 degrees. a little bit on the cool side. but by later this afternoon, another one where you're not needing a jacket. especially in new york, 54 degrees and sunshine. >> looks like another beautiful day. this is not winter, todd but we'll take it. thanks so much. back to indianapolis where the new york giants are probably still up celebrating another super bowl title. it was a 9-7 regular season for the giants but turned it on in the playoffs where they met a red hot team. the patriots, including the playoffs won ten in a row. gisele walking from the box seats. she was in the news after urging friends and family to pray for her husband, tommy. if you had a safety as the opening scoring play you made a lot of money in las vegas last night. tom brady under pressure heaves the ball downfield to no one. great play by justin tuck who had another huge sack, intentional grounding, yes, that

is a safety. giants get the ball back, eli manning makes the most of it. caps a 78-yard drive with this to victor cruz. we are blessed with the cruz salsa dance in the super bowl on the big stage. showing off those beautiful moves. get out to a nine-point lead at the end of the first quarter but the patriots come roaring back. third quarter, aaron hernandez runs over a defender on the way into the end zone. patriots score 17 unanswered points, up 17-9. giants eventually kick two field goals. eli gets his shot, down 17-15. there's your play of the game. great catch and great job keeping the feet inbounds by mario manningham. not a bad throw either by way. let's not forget that side of it. replay shows he got both down. they reviewed it. it's good. eli leads the giants down to the 6 yard line off that play with a minute to go. giants have the option to run out the clock and kick a field goal. patriots had one time-out left.

strategy by belichick, let them score. they let bradshaw score. he can't stop his own football instincts. he finds the end zone. that gives tom brady the ball back. down four points, he gets one last shot here, a heave into the end zone. watch number 87 in blue had a shot at that thing. ron gronkowski couldn't quite get there. that's the last play of the nfl season. another comeback, another upset. the new york giants beat the patriots by the score of 21-17. they're the super bowl champs. eli manning is mvp. throws for 206 yards and a touchdown. that's his second super bowl mvp award. eli who completed a hail mary pass against the packers at the end of first half in their divisional matchup said he was holding his breath on the sideline as tom brady tried to connect on that last hail mary. >> i knew there wasn't much time. and, you no he, with these guys, with new england, they're never out of it.

tom brady is a tremendous quarterback and they did a great job converting 0en a fourth and 16. all of a sudden they throw one in the end zone, it's up there. that's nerve-racking. we completed a hail mary this year. i was hoping it wasn't going to be another one, wouldn't be completed tonight for them. great job by our defense, stepping up, getting the sack, doing some great things. >> defense played great throughout the playoffs. giants defensive star justin tuck who forced that safety, osi umenyiora and dave tollefson showed up for a live edition of "late night with jimmy fallon." >> halftime, 10-9. that's not much of a lead. is the coach throwing garbage cans against the wall. >> i don't know if coughlin can even pick up a garbage can. >> oh, my gosh. you had the crowd on your side. they loved you going in. is that motivation, all you need? >> it's funny, we're in

indianapolis and obviously this is peyton manning's town. everyone just -- [ cheers and applause ] everyone kept telling us, man, they definitely didn't want brady to win in indianapolis. >> was there one thing you think of to make you go that extra level, to give you that extra fuel? >> our teammates. >> each other, man. >> each other, man. you know, we kind of coin the slogan for ourselves this year as all in. it's about 11 guys -- 11 guys playing as one. >> you are sweet. they love you. come on. [ cheers and applause ] >> i love you guys. >> a lot of people talking coming into this game about the battle between tom brady and 'lie manning. brandon jacob when asked how good eli manning was, he said 228 countries just saw eli,

speaking of the huge super bowl audience, i don't have to say anything. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," mitt romney wins decisively at this weekend's nevada caucuses. still not good enough to convince gingrich to get out of race. he says he's taking this thing all the way to tampa. we'll huddle up around the water cooler. we have to talk about super bowl ads the morning after. there's actually one we're talking about. clint eastwood staring down america when "way too early" comes right back. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

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a lost people making money and losing money in las vegas yesterday. on saturday, people in nevada were voting. according to nbc's exit polls, mitt romney essentially swept every demographic in saturday 'caucus. there were a couple areas he showed weakness. congressman ron paul won 41% of voters between the ages of 17 and 29 and 54% of voters who did not identify with any religion. paul beat romney by 6 points among younger voters and by 30 points among the atheist crew. romney won the support of most

conservatives. only 4%. but he was the true conservative in the race. enough of real news, let's huddle up around the water cooler to dig into some of the commercials. scoring among the highest ads in popularity we "usa today" ad meter is the number three ranking ad. we have a staff of three. this was our ranking. doritos missing cat ad. it crashed the super bowl contest. he used $20 to create the ad and borrowed a friend's dog apparently. the commercial, a dog proves to be a man's best friend by giving a man a bag of doritos in exchange for keeping quiet about what he had done to the neighbor's missing cat. number two, the dog strikes back. keeping the "star wars" theme. remember last year it was the runaway best ad. the little kid trying to use the force to start different things around the house. the darth vader ad, started the

car. what does this have to do with "star wars"? they kept the theme. here's the deal. i was watching the game. i couldn't watch the commercials. i was too focused. there it is, the "star wars" bar came in at the end. i think the wait was worth it there. the one everybody is talking about, clint eastwood's chrysler ad called halftime in america. this appeared at halftime of the game. >> both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half. it's halftime in america, too. people are out of work and they're hurting. and they're all wondering what they're going to do to make a comeback. we're all scared because thissen is a game. detroit is showing us it can be done and what's true about them is true about all of us. this country can't be knocked out with one punch. we get right back up again and when we do, the world will hear the roar of our engines.

it's halftime, america and our second half's about to begin. >> remember chrysler had the m & m ad last super bowl, this year coming in strong with clint eastwood. another one you probably didn't see unless you lived in north platte, nebraska. will ferrell for old milwaukee. this was a super bowl ad but only aired in that one town. ♪ ♪ >> that's how they did it. they cut off the end. they only had 30 seconds so his

walk was too slow. they cut him off. will ferrell for old milwaukee, an actual ad. the critics by the way if you read up and down were impressed. if you didn't like madonna, you weren't going to like this. she kept it between the lines for the most part. opening with an army of roman gladiators, lmfao and cee lo green, nicki minaj also took to the stage. it wasn't actually madonna who got the controversial headline. it was the woman on the right there named m.i.a. you know her song named "paper planes." she had a salute for the world. ♪ it's supersonic uranium hits ♪ ima say this one i don't give

a ♪ >> she flipped off the world. the censors apparently caught it. good reviews for madonna. still ahead on "way too early," your tweets, texts and e-mails are next. "morning joe" is just minutes away. even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight,

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