while the adults work through their problems? and it looks like peyton manning can still play in the nfl, after all. the quarterback getting in his first game last night with the denver broncos. the question is, who else looked good in week one of the nfl season? it's way too early for this. good morning, i'm willie geist, and this is "way too early," the show whose daughter has her first day of kindergarten today. i'm glad you're up with us this morning, watching on msnbc. you're listening live on sirius xm radio. you can e-mail me or tweet me @williegeist. or do what rg3 does and text the word "awake" followed by your response to 622639. we'll read the best responses later in the show. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this monday, september 10th. a lot to tell you about including mitt romney defending the absence of afghanistan and american troops from his

convention speech. we'll play that for you. plus, president obama bear hugged and lifted off the ground by the owner of a florida pizza joint. we'll tell you how the secret service felt about this one a little bit later in the show. first, though, let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. for the first time in four months, democrats have helped president obama pull ahead of mitt romney and his republican allies in monthly fund-raising. new numbers out this morning show the president's re-election campaign along with the dnc took in more than $114 million in august. mitt romney and republicans raising just over $111 million. despite the president's edge last month, romney still has raised over $100 million now for three straight months and has more campaign cash put aside for the general election. less than two months now until voters head to the polls. and this week former president bill clinton begins stumping for the obama campaign throughout the state of florida. that's where president obama spent his weekend, keeping the conversation away from friday's

poor jobs report. instead telling seniors they would pay more for their health care under the medicare plan offered by his opponent. mitt romney spent sunday doing debate prep at his campaign headquarters in boston, but the republican nominee also raised some eyebrows with a comment he made about the president's health care law. romney has long vowed to repeal and replace it if elected. but during the interview, david gregory yesterday on "meet the press," he appeared to be more accepting to some parts of president obama's law. >> i say we're going to replace obamacare, and i'm replacing it with my own plan. and you know, even in massachusetts where i was governor, our plan there deals with preexisting conditions and with young people. >> so you keep that as part of the federal plan? >> i'm not getting rid of all of health care reform. of course there are a number of things that i like that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with preexisting conditions can get coverage. two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to

whatever age they might like. i also want individuals to be able to buy insurance -- health insurance -- on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company. >> romney campaign insists that's nothing new, says that romney believes people who did not have a gap in their coverage should not be denied care. the candidate also sparred over taxes. mitt romney and his running mate stressing their plan to offset tax cuts by closing loopholes. speaking in separate interviews on sunday, the two men avoided naming specific tax breaks, though, that they would eliminate. >> don't voters have a right to know which loopholes you're going to go after? >> so mitt romney and i, based on our experience, think the best way to do this is to show the framework, show the outlines of these plans, and then to work with congress to do this. that's how you get things done. >> isn't that a secret plan? >> no, no. what we don't want is a secret plan. what we don't want to do is cut some backroom deal like obamacare and then hatch it to the country.

we want this out in the open. >> why not say right now? >> because we want to have this -- george, because we want to have this debate in the public. we want to have this debate with congress. >> give me an example of a loophole that you will close. >> well, i can tell you that people at the high end, high-income tax payers are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. those numbers are going to come down. otherwise they'd get a tax break, and i want to make sure people understand, despite what the democrats said at their convention, i am not reducing taxes on high-income tax payers. i'm bringing down the rate of taxation, but also bringing down deductions and exemptions at the high end so the revenues stay the same. the taxes people pay stay the same. middle-income people are going to get a break. but at the high end, the tax coming in stays the same. >> so the absence of specifics from candidate romney and his running mate, paul ryan opened the door for president obama yesterday on the campaign trail. >> governor romney and his allies tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending

trillions of more dollars on new tax breaks for the wealthy. listen, you've got to do the math because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn't. it was like 2 plus 1 equals 5. that's not bold leadership. that's bad math. that gets a failing grade. >> mitt romney also was pressed by david gregory on why he avoided mentioning the war in afghanistan and the troops during his convention speech in tampa. an omission that democrats and some republicans have criticized. >> it's interesting that people are curious about mentioning words in a speech as opposed to policy. and so i went to the american legion the day before i gave that speech. >> you weren't speaking to tens of millions of people when you went to the american legion. >> everywhere i go is spoken to

tens of millions of people. that's the way it ought to be. i have some differences on policy with the president. i happen to think those are more important than what word i mention in each speech. >> when you give a speech, you don't go through a laundry list. you talk about the things that you think are important, and i described in my speech my commitment to a strong military, unlike the president's decision to cut our military. and i didn't use the word "troops." i used the word "military." i think they refer to the same thing. >> that was a bite on friday on fox news. mitt romney's wife, ann, joined him for port of that interview on the campaign bus, and she came to her husband's defense. >> our life has always been devoted to those that are struggling more than we are. and i was grateful for the opportunity that we had at the convention for others to speak up and talk about the kind of lives we've led, and in particular for mitt who really has been demonized in many ways as being heartless. >> the president meanwhile

looking to build on his post-convention momentum. a new gallup daily tracking poll shows his approval rating up to 50% with 44% disapproving. only a week ago, his approval upside down, 45% approving, 48% disapproving. in gallup's nationwide head-to-head tracking poll, president obama now leads romney 49-44%. a week ago they were separated by a single point. today mitt romney campaigns in the state of ohio where recent polling gives president obama a 50-44% advantage. no republican has won the presidency without also winning the state of ohio. we're following a developing story out of chicago this morning where 25,000 teachers are set to walk off the job and go on strike. after months of tense negotiations, the teachers union and the chicago school district failed to reach a midnight deadline for a new contract. so an estimated 350,000 students, perhaps more, affected by the teachers strike. this is the city's first in 25 years.

one of the biggest wedge issues, teacher evaluation which the union fears will be based too heavily on standardized test scores. the union president says that system does not take any account other factors that impact kids' test scores including poverty and violence. >> class size matters. it matters to parents. our children are exposed to unprecedented levels of neighborhood violence and other social issues. so the fight for wraparound services is critically important to all of us. we are committed to staying at the table until a contract is in place. however, in the morning, no ctu members will be inside our schools. >> mayor rahm emanuel who campaigned on a pledge to overhaul the city's school system says the two sides must reach a deal for kids. >> i am disappointed that we have come to this point, given that all the other parties acknowledge how close we are,

because this is a strike of choice. and because of how close we are, it is a strike that is unnecessary. >> as the strike takes hold, parents now being forced to rearrange their schedules, find alternatives to programs to care for their kids. about 150 schools will be open for half days where nonunionized teachers will supervise activities, many of them are supervisors and officials from the school. but officials say parents should only use those schools as a last resort. another issue deals with feeding kids. more than 80% of the city's studen students qualify for free and reduced programs at their schools. still ahead, they looked terrible in the preseason, but the new york jets could not be stopped in their first real game on sunday. the sanchez/tebow experiment works for now. mostly sanchez. week one nfl highlights. and serena at the u.s. open ahead in sports. and president obama lifted off his feet by a happy supporter in florida. we'll explain the scene and get a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back.

all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. we cannot say that 10% of the population that you can't have that right. that your children can't have the chance to develop whatever talents they have. i think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that. let's see if we can get one past the defense. hut! go! here it comes!

right on the numbers! boom! get it! spin! oh, nice hands! chest bump. ugh! good job, man. nice! okay, halftime. now, this is my favorite play. oh! i'm wide open. oh, fumble. fumble. don't want to fumble any of these. [ male announcer ] share what you love, with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. it's up... and it's good! good?! they're grrreat! and it's good! hey america, even though slisa rinna is wearing the new depend silhouette briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level.

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♪ welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:43 in the morning. a live picture of the united states capitol building. let's get a check on your weather from nbc meteorologist todd santos. todd, good morning. >> good morning to you, willie. a quiet setup across a good stretch of the country for today. your monday travel should be fairly easy, especially after what we dealt with early saturday with those two tornado touchdowns near the new york

city area. the issue itself is that frontal boundary leaving us with mostly clear skies. the piece that's going to be most noticeable as you step outside, the could toler temperatures. 61 degrees at this point. 58 in hartford. will see a few patches of light frost tomorrow morning up around old forge, central portions of new york state. some of the first areas generally to see cooler temperatures in the northeast. that's kind of that first sign that maybe we start to begin that transition of seasons. for the most part today fairly quiet. may see a few pockets of light showers. some of those towards the capitol district. albany getting in on some of that. 69 degrees, your daytime high in boston. cooler temperatures will not last all week but the next couple days. we'll start to see numbers creeping up from new york up towards boston down towards d.c. there's a look at the southeast. at least towards tampa, there are a few pockets of showers, maybe isolated thunderstorms this morning possible there. will likely see that coverage kind of increasing as we work through the afternoon.

so something to keep in mind traveling around central, southern florida, orlando and all the way back down towards miami by later on this afternoon. look wall to wall across the country. you see a lot of sunshine showing up on the map. southwest dealing with some of the showers. again, for most of your travels today, should not see many issues weather related. here's a look at least into your tuesday. again, a very similar scenario. places like minneapolis, we'll see temperatures in the 90s today. a big drop in temperatures as we get into tomorrow. for the most part, a good setup this week, willie. love to show up in new york here for what looks like probably the best weather of the whole summer. >> a little fall weather, cooling off. todd, thanks so much. to sports, the first full weekend of action in the nfl. third quarter, denver down six. manning finds demaryius thomas on the quick out. just like that. remember this in the overtime with tebow at quarterback. the long touchdown. 71 yards. the 400th touchdown pass by the way in peyton manning's career.

the steelers, though, eventually retake the lead. in the fourth quarter, manning going to find his former colts' teammate jacob tamme. denver goes up three. steelers down six with two to play. ben roethlisberger trying to make something happen. but he is picked off by tracy porter. he takes it all the way for the pick six. that seals the win for the broncos. they get their first win of the peyton manning era in denver, 31-19. broncos. top pick andrew luck, manning's replacement in indianapolis, making his first nfl start against the bears. there were more than a few growing pains. luck in the red zone trying to find reggie wayne for the score. pass is tipped off. one of three interceptions thrown on the day by luck. colts lose andrew luck's debut in a rout, 41-21. robert griffin iii, rg3, one of a record five rookie quarterbacks starting week one. he made it look easy against the saints. first quarter, hits pierre garcon.

nice grab. and he is gone. 88 yards for the touchdown. rg3, his first career touchdown pass. he throws for two scores, 320 yards, leading the skins to a 40-32 win over the new orleans saints. mark sanchez and the jets' offense trying to silence the doubters against the bills. he didn't throw a touchdown pass in the preseason but connecting here with rookie steven hill 33 yards. jets up a couple touchdowns. he had three td passes. special teams and defense also adding scores. the jets roll over buffalo, 48-28. tebow not much of a factor. just 11 yards rushing and no passing attempts. 49ers hosting the packers. just before the end of the half here. jim harbaugh sends david akers out to try a 63-yard field goal. looks like it was going to come up short. this is in green bay, but it hits the crossbar, gets the favorable bounce through the uprights. that 63-yarder ties akers for the longest field goal in nfl history. and he's stunned. gives the niners a nine-point

lead going into the half. alex smith hits vernon davis for the short touchdown. oh! oh! jammed on his dunk attempt. the lambeau crossbar strikes again, rejecting this time vernon davis's dunk in the end zone. niners hold on. an impressive road win over the packers, 30-22. a little golf for you, rory mcilroy ended the weekend with another title. the 23-year-old won the bmw championship. his second consecutive fedexcup playoff event win, won by two strokes, became the first player since tiger woods in 2009 to win a consecutive weeks on the pga tour. mcilroy shot a 20 under. final round 67. we'll see if he can make it three straight when he tees off on september the 20th. and serena williams powered past top seed victoria azarenka in three sets to claim the fourth u.s. open title of her career. ahead of the final, williams hadn't lost a single set in the tournament and had dropped just 19 games with 6 matches. with the win, she becomes the

first women's tennis player to top $40 million in career earnings. azarenka couldn't pull off the upset. the lead singer of lmfao in the box seats cheering her on. the two apparently are good friends. the u.s. open men's final between andy murray and novak djokovic is set for this afternoon. what a summer for serena williams. she won wimbledon. she won the gold medal in wimbledon and now a u.s. open title. coming up at the top of the hour, mitt romney on "meet the press" says he wants to close loopholes for wealthy americans to help balance the budget, but does the math add up, and what's he going to close exactly? we'll talk to our crew about that. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch the bear hug felt 'round the world. president obama walks into a pizza shop and gets the greeting of a lifetime. "way too early" coming right back. jack, you're a little boring.

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i told you at the top of the show that the 25,000 public schoolteachers in chicago going on strike this morning after negotiations brek down between the teachers union and the

school district last night. the teachers strike is the city's first since 1987 when there was a 19-day work stoppage. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends public high school teachers in chicago make a median salary of $74,210, the third-highest average rate among all school districts nationwide. only the new york city and nassau, new york, school districts have higher average wages for the teachers. the national average for public high school teachers, just over $53,000. let's huddle around the water cooler to witness the all-too-rare presidential bear hug. the president stopped in florida during his bus tour through the state. he was greeted at the door by big apple pizza owner scott van duser, a republican who says he voted for obama in 2008 and will do so again this fall. president obama stopped to admire his physique, and then this happened. >> scott, you are, like, the biggest pizza parlor owner

you've ever seen, man. >> you have no idea. >> look at these guns. everybody, look at these guns. if i eat your pizza, will i look like that? >> come on, man. >> look at that. >> man, i am so excited. >> man, are you a power lifter or what? >> the man who says he can bench 350 pounds started washing dishes at that pizzeria when he was 16 eventually becoming the owner. the president made a stop to promote blood donation. he said he voted for president obama in 2008, and after that bear hug, most certainly planning to vote for him again this year. and a headline in "the l.a. times" has become something of an internet phenomenon. here it is. ready? illegal monkey living on frosted flakes bites woman. wildlife officials say the

22-year-old macaque like this one pictured is apparently being kept as a pet in saint luis obispo, california. and late last month, the cereal-loving monkey attacked a woman biting her several times in the arm and fingers. the animal services telling "the l.a. times," quote, this kind of animal is never meant to be kept domestically. it lived on a diet of frosted flakes and juice. we strongly discourage the keeping of any such animal, end quote. just to state the obvious, he added that is entirely the wrong kind of diet. again, do not feed your monkey frosted flakes. zoo officials say the monkey is obese, weighing double what you should. now the zoo has put her on a strict diet of fruits, vegetables and monkey chow. her owner could face a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail of possession of a restricted species and feeding it frosted flakes. why are you awake? your frosted tweets, texts and e-mails are next. "morning joe" just moments away. at usaa, we believe honor is not

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top stories at this very moment on nbc.com, as we told you earlier, the nation's third largest school system striking today after failing to reach a contract agreement with district officials. upwards of 350,000 students will be impacted by the walkout. at the top of the show we asked you what you're doing up at this hour. john tower, our producer, has answers. >> tony standing outside wondering where the hell willie is. >> tony, you're a week late. boy, did we have a blast in charlotte. they put on a great show as that whole city did. thank you again, tony. you can go in. i don't know if they'll be open for about six more hours, but you're welcome to hang out for a while. what else? >> starting my day with a box of frosted flakes, like the monkey, i am also 20 pounds overweight. >> i think it's a good idea for you not to eat a box of frosted flakes every morning. that also applies to monkeys. what else? >> darrell, because "way too early" deejay spins the best vintage on