the word "awake" to 622639. we'll read the responses later in the show. the next 30 minute sz your cram show for this monday may 7th. the air strike in yemen looks to have killed one of the men who is alleged to have been behind the 200 bombing of the "uss cole." we'll have details there. plus, jon stewart goes between two ferns with that gentleman there, zach galifianakis. how could you possibly miss that? we'll have the clip later in the show. first let's get to the news, live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in nor p new york city. a political backlash against fiscal austerity is sweeping across europe. in france, francois hollande defeated french president nicholas car soezy in a runoff sunday. a string of politicians to fall. mr. hollande's victory for the socialist movement signals a shift to the left as france

deals with its struggling economy. it marks a clear rejection of president sarkozy's attempts to control the debt crisis through aus terty measures. mr. hollande insists there are other ways to trigger economic growth. the president-elect's plan promises more government spending and more government jobs. he also had plans to increase taxes on wealthy individuals and on corporations with the individual top rate going, if he has his way, to 75%. mr. sarkozy, meanwhile, thanked his supporters on sunday, saying he tried his best to win reelection despite widespread anger at his handling of the economy. he took full responsibility for his defeat. the french president lost a second term by 4% of the vote. turning now to greece where voters are also fed up with auss tearty measures taking it out on their politicians in yesterday's parliamentary elections, a majority of greeks came out against the country's two major parties, rejecting support of the international bailout. instead, voters are backing

smaller, sometimes fringe groups that oppose aus terty. the future of the country's $171 billion rescue package is now in doubt. not only could greece go bankrupt, but it could also put the country's european allies on the hook for billions of dollars. let's sort through all of this and get an impact on the global economy and a look at what it means to the continent. cnbc's jeff cutmore is live for us in london. geoff, let's start in fransz. what did the voters there tell their government? >> it's a very interesting result, isn't it? and effectively what it seems to suggest is there is a rejection of the austerity that nicolas sarkozy was pursuing and perhaps a message to germany here that the rest of europe isn't prepared to go down the road any further on this austerity program. the problem here is we don't actually really know what hollande will implement when he

comes into power. he got elected saying he would introduce taxes of 75% on those earning more than $1 million, 45% on those earning mohr than $150,000 euros and bringing another 60,000 teachers by on to the payroll for the public sector. so all of those things sound like more government spending and more taxation. if he implements that strategy, i think we will see further losses on the french exchange. investors do not want to see this type of policy approach, and it will drive capital out of france. >> let's talk about what it means for the future of the european bailout here. we know germany, angela merkel had pushed hard for austerity to get through some of these packages. what happens now not just with the result in france but the elections in greece yesterday? >> yeah. you know, there's a real big question mark at this stage, and that's why we have read across the screen on the european

markets this morning, it is the fear of the unknown in a sense. because we felt like we had a plan, and the markets had settled down accepting that was the direction of travel. now, with the greek result, you really have the possibility that we will see one country leave the single currency bloc, citi coming out this morning saying they thought there was anywhere between a 50% and 75% likelihood of that happening. if that were to happen, some questions as to how many other members of the bloc would say, we're happy to stay in it and not see greece leave and devalue its own drak ma. >> a remarkable morning. geoff thanks so much. we'll go to paris, where we find nbc's jim asait toe. jim, what does it look and feel where you're standing today? >> reporter: hi, willie. it's kind of feeling like the morning after the night before. not many people got -- at least

not many francois hollande e supporters got much sleep. tens of thousands of them really partied all night long at the bastil bastille. a symbol of freedom, also a shrine to leftist politics. now hollande who beat nicolas sarkozy, by the way, with a very small margin, 1% or 2%. he will become naug rift and become the first socialist president almost 25 years ago. so it's a huge victory for the left in this country. the left is feeling that victory in a visceral way. it's a victory that wasn't just a protest vote against sarkozy's often-talked-about brash style, his hobnobbing with the rich and naims, b famous but also a protest against his basic inability to deal with the debt crisis in

this country. >> as you said, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time historically speaking. jim asade da, we appreciate your reporting. we turn to politics here at home. mitt romney heading to cleveland, ohio, this afternoon just days after president obama launched his reelection bid in that state. the president's saturday rally part of an official campaign kickoff where he warned against a republican vision that, in his words, would, quote, turn back the clock. >> now we face a choice. for the last few years the republicans who run this congress have insisted that we go right back to the policies that created this mess. republicans in congress have found a nominee for president who's promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he gets the chance. ohio, i tell you what, we cannot give him that chance.

not now. not with so much at stake. bigger profits haven't led to better jobs. governor romney doesn't seem to get that. he doesn't seem to understand that maximizing profits by whatever means necessary, whether through layoffs or outsourcing or tax avoidance or union busting, might not always be good for the average american or for the american economy. i don't care how many ways you try to explain it, corporations aren't people. people are people! >> the president saturday in ohio. romney's campaign responded to that speech saying, in part, while president obama all but ignored his record over 3 1/2 years in office, the american people will not. a new "usa today"/gallup poll breaking down the race in the top 12 swing states, the first look at the battlegrounds since

mr. romney emerged as the republicans' presumptive nominee. right now the head-to-head matchup is a statistical tie, the president up two points within the margin of error. sin for the first time since last fall, republicans are more likely than democrats to say they're very enthusiastic about voting by an 11-point margin, a dramatic swing from last year when republicans held a 14% edge on the question. 52% think the president would do a good job on the economy, 60% say that of mr. romney. we'll have more on the numbers and what they mean on "morning joe" at the top of the hour. with president obama's reelection campaign in full swing now, vice president joe biden expressing an openness to gay marriage but stopped short of saying whether or not president obama would push to see it legalized during a second term. >> i am vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with

the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same rights, all the civil rights, civil liberties, and quite frankly i don't see much of a distinction beyond that. >> vice president biden on "meet the press" with david gregory. the white house quickly responded maintaining the vice president's comments don't really differ with the president's stance. a statement released -- the vice president was saying what the president has said previously, that committed and loving same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections enjoyed by all americans and we oppose any efforts to roll back those rights. the vice president was expressing he too is evolving on the issue after meeting so many committed couples and families in this country. officials in yemen have confirmed that a top al qaeda leader has been killed by an american drone strike. yemeni authorities say al kuzo

was killed, was on the fbi's list for the most wanted for his role in bombing the "uss cole" that killed 17 american sailors in 2000. the attack was authorized by yemen's new president, who has vowed to increase cooperation with the united states in fighting terrorism. still ahead here on "way too early" this morning, the old guard phillies send the message to the new kids on the block in the national league. the nats' bryce harper gets one in the back, then gets his revenge. highlights from the big leagues and nhl and nba playoffs ahead in sports. plus, the new jersey tan mom is immortalized by snl, kristen wiig doing the honors. >> the time of surrender has come and through the streets of munich prisoners make their last

mark as soldiers of germany. ♪ [ lauer ] this is our team. and unlike other countries, it's built by your donations, not government funding. and now, to support our athletes, you can donate a stitch in america's flag for the 2012 olympic games in london. help raise our flag, add your stitch at teamusa.org.

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after just one use? think again. [ female announcer ] with olay regenerist wrinkle revolution, it's possible to reduce the look of wrinkles in just 10 minutes. now you've seen it. experience it for yourself. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist. when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us.

welcome back to "way too early." it is 5:44 a.m. relatively empty times square. let's get a check on the weather, bill karins. bill, what do you have? >> remember last week was gloomy and rainy through the middle of the week? >> i do. >> looks like we're doing it all over. i guess we'll take it, as long as we get decent weekends. rye now the horrible weather this morning is through the great lakes, chicago southward had a lot of heavy rain overnight. now the thunderstorms rolling through northern indiana and northern portions of ohio, lightning strikes, we've had about 6,000 in the last hour throughout this region. if you're driving on interstate 80 between chicago and toledo, that's by far the worst of it. it's not fun around champaign, illinois. a lot of people probably being woken up by loud claps of nunder. forecast, severe weatherwise, areas of yellow chance of severe

storms today. not too many tornadoes so that's good. nashville, memphis, louisville, indianapolis and all of the state of ohio, a chance of large hail and damaging winds. east coast, right on the coast, d.c. to new york, boston, you're dry for today. then that's it, chance of rain tuesday through thursday. thunderstorms possible pittsburgh and buffalo. southeast just a few storms. if you want the gorgeous weather, you have to head to the west coast, mr. geist. >> we'll be thinking about sham bana, champaign, illinois. let's turn to sports now. regardless of the final outcome of the nishgz series against the heat, fans in new york got a brief sigh of relief, the knicks finally won a playoff game on sunday, ending a slide na lasted 13 games and more than 11 years. facing the heat with the season on the line, perhaps delaying the inevitable, but it was a great game. amar'e stoudemire was playing with a heavily bandaged hand. remember he punched that fire extinguisher and played pretty well. knicks down by as many as 11 in the second half. but in the fourth stoudemire put the knicks up one there. the heat would not make it easy.

with a minute left, lebron sank r sinks a three tying the game, a look at spike lee. carmelo with a pull-up three. knicks hang on for the 89-87 victory. carmelo 41 points in the game, one of three nicks ever to score more than 40 points in a playoff game. the heat lead the series 3-1. game five wednesday night in miami. the celtics blew out the hawks, up 3-1 in that series. rajon rondo, a double-double for the celtics. and mitt romney there enjoying the effort at the game. he likes sport ball after all. the celtics no doubt inspired boy romney's cheering win 101-79. chicago bulls playing without derrick rose and joaquin noah, they're down 3-1, the number one seed on the brink. the lakers went up 3-1 on the nuggets with a win last night. in baseball, espn's sunday night game, here you have the nationals playing prime-time sunday night baseball.

welcome, says cole hamels and the phillies, to bryce harper, the 19-year-old phenom gets one i guess you'd call that in the derrière. the first pitch introducing himself to cole hamels' 90-mile-an-hour fastball. hamels admitted he hit the teenager on purpose, hamels saying, i was trying to hit him. i'm not going to deny it. welcome to the big leagues. here's the payback. harper steals home. hamels goes for the pick-off move. see him break here? the teenager first to steal home since ed kirk poot rick did it in 1964. take another look, unbelievable. harper's night was great but hunter pence even greater, his second home run of the game, a two-run shots, nationals lose 9-3. they also lose jas nl weathen wo a broken wrist ff. >> red sox and orioles plays the longest game of the season.

outfielder darnell mcdonald is pitching for the sox, serves up a bomb. the o's break the tie. baltimore's dh chris davis had an awful day at the plate, 0 for 8, 5 strikeouts, might be the hero, comes in to pitch two scoreless innings. the dh was pitching there, gets adrian gonzalez swinging there. and a few laughs from the baltimore bench. orioles win 9-6 in 17 innings. the dh chris davis gets the win. this is the first game since 1925 where both teams resorted to using position players as pitchers. the orioles take care of the red sox, orioles now with the best record in baseball. anaheim, it took him 110 at-bats. albert pujols finally hits a home run as an angel. a two-runner for the angels sunday afternoon. they beat the jays 4-3. pujols returns to an empty dugout. his teammates hiding in the tunnel before mobbing him. apparently torii hunter's idea.

worth noting, 273 players hit at least one home run this year before pujols did. hockey, the kings finished off the blues yesterday, a sweep, 3-1 win to become the first eight seed in nhl history to eliminate their first two seeds in the same post season. they'll face the winner of the coyotes/predators in the next round. in the east, devils beat the flyers, up 3-1. martin brodeur celebrating his 40th birthday with 20 saves in the win. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," french part voters still voting at the bastille after they send president nicolas sarkozy packing for francois hollande. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch jon stewart go between two ferns with zach galifianakis. wonderfully, painfully awkward, when we come back. [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze...

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been talking all morning about the big news. francois hollande defeats incumbent nicolas sarkozy in a runoff for the french presidency. sarkozy's management of the debt

crisis was the key issue of the campaign, with hollande promising a different solution to france's financial woes. if you want to sound smart, tell your friends nine european countries have voted out their head of state or ruling party since the financial crisis blew up in 2009. they have elected a new ruling power in the year since the dealt meltdown in europe. let's huddle up around the water cooler to watch a little snl about five floors above us here at 30 rock. eli manage was your host. a lot to live up to. his brother peyton manning did a great job a few years ago. eli was good, too, but let's just say the highlight was not eli. it was probably tanning mom. patricia krenz elle, accused of taking her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning bed. she denies it entirely, but it didn't stop kristen wiig from joining seth meyer on a weekend

update. >> i would never bring a 5-year-old into tanning beds. tanning beds should only be used by responsible adults, because you may not know this, seth, some people over-tan. what's wrong? you need water? here you go. here you go. >> sorry. i got a little dried out for a second. >> now, you've said that those who criticize you are fat, ugly and jealous. >> yes. though i can't blame them for being jealous. i am alluring in a way they'll never be. i want to snow you this trick. are you ready? >> yes, i'd love to see the trick. >> piece of bread, put it between my thighs. toast. >> then she snaps into a bite. that was, of course, snl star kristen wiig doing that impersonation. honestly, it's understated if you look at ms. krentcil there. the belove series between

two ferns made its special television debut ahead of last night's comedy central awards. there is mr. galifianakis in black tie, this time with jon stewart. >> do things where you think that you're influencing people's -- >> we don't think we're influencing -- >> well, i feel like there's a certain -- >> we don't. >> -- maybe chip on your shoulder or sense of entitlement that maybe you have. >> there's no sense of entitlement. >> that people think that you think you know so much [ bleep ] about everything that's happening. >> we don't even make that face. >> oh, look at me. i'm jon stewart, i know everything. people are sick of it. this perception of you out there -- don't touch my ferns! >> i'm sorry. >> don't touch them. don't -- please don't touch them. >> i'm sorry. >> i've been to the movies,

though. it's not like i haven't done things. >> stood around with a monkey in a movie, baby strapped to the chinchilla. you've been in movies. >> people liked that movie. >> helms is in movies. >> he's in the same movie i was talking about. >> oh, i don't remember you. i remember ed helms in a great movie with this [ bleep ] guy carrying a monkey. tweets texts and e-mails are next. and "morning joe" live this morning from washington, moments away. [ kyle ] my bad. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have... [ dennis ] ...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪

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at the top of the show we asked what you're doing up at this hour. our producer has answered. >> kyle writes -- with this my with this, my remote batteries are dead. >> your pain is our gain. you cannot -- he physically cannot change the channel. that's why we got that viewer. what else, tower? >> i have heather writing, enjoying the show this morning from jupiter, florida. getting prepped to take our boat across the bahamas for a fishing tournament. >> if i had a nickel for every time i did that, getting the