off a ski on live national television with my new friend lil kim. lil kim. i was rocking the jeremy lin tee shirt. at 30 rock, congress is expected now to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut for millions of americans perhaps as early as tomorrow. the $150 billion deal came together after republican leaders decided an extended fight how to pay for the measure could hurt the party ahead of the november elections. one of the top negotiators, max baucus announced the deal very early this morning. >> this is very important for a lot of people, 160 million americans can maintain payroll tax cut, a lot of folks lost their jobs through no fault of their own will receive unemployment benefits, seniors, see their doctors get medicare, and it's good for the country, very good for the country. >> compromise extends 2% cut in the social security payroll tax for ten months, $1000 in savings for the average worker. bill renews weekly jobless benefits for unemployed and protects doctors from a big drop in medicare reimbursements. house and senate hoping to vote before saturday when their week-long recess begins. that deal in congress welcome news to president obama on the west coast, ramping up reelection efforts, stopping in wisconsin before a pair of hollywood fund-raisers last night. he cited improving manufacturing. >> businessesed a ed added 3.7 jobs. manufacturing is coming back. companies are bringing jobs back. the economy is getting stronger. the recovery is speeding up. we're moving in the right direction. and now we have to do nfrg our power to keep our foot on the gas. and the last thing we can afford to do is go back to the same policies that got us in this mess. >> new numbers suggest the president gaining traction in florida, pennsylvania, virginia. he tops all four republican presidential candidates on swing states. he leads mitt romney by 8 points. ahead rick santorum and ron paul by double digit, newt gingrich trails him by 20 points. those are an average of swing states. when you look at ohio separately, the two republican front-runners edge ahead of president obama, who falls 6 points behind romney and 3 points behind santorum in a statistical tie with santorum in ohio. president obama leads nationally, 50% support against every single candidate, the margin closest against mitt romney. that spread is five points. rick santorum seven points behind in the general election national cnn poll. in the fight for the republican nomination, mitt romney continues to play up hometown roots in michigan. first released this campaign ad highlighting his childhood in the state. now, he's driving home that message on the trail. >> i'm delighted to be back in michigan to see old friends i got lots of old friends. an old high school we lived across the hall from grand rapids, i'm so honored to be here have so many of you here. we'll talk what we will be doing over the next few years to get michigan. another guy from my high school, and a gal -- a lot of high schoolers here, this really does bring back memories. any old girlfriends here? i have to be careful. anne is not here today. >> look out. romney is about to pick up a boost of support in the state of michigan a few hours from now, the governor rick snyder will endorse mitt romney's bid to become president. snyder wrote a piece in the detroit news this morning emphasizing romney's michigan upbringing and experience in the private sector. that announcement later today. santorum campaign is looking to undercut the message. the former senator released four years of tax returns, the most of any republican candidate thus far. santorum paid a tax rate of 28.5%, 15% more than what mitt romney paid according to his returns. most americans pay a rate around 35%. big international news the white house says iran's unpredictable behavior proofs tough sanctions are putting it under stress. tehran is threatening to cut off oil supplies to parts of europe, hours after booasting after a nw nuclear program. andrea mitchell has more. >> reporter: iran's president showing new fuel rods in tehran. a plant produces medical isotopes and claiming progress on centerfuges. the u.s. said it was much ado about nothing. >> this is not big news, it seems to have been hyped. >> reporter: what is iran up top? >> president's announcement carried live on state tv, carefully packaged both for foreign and domestic consumption. iran wants to show it can master nuclear technology on its own and it will, no matter what the rest of the world says. >> reporter: u.s. officials say iran is blustering while taking a step back from a show down. today think will resume nuclear talks with the west. negotiations iran walked out of a year ago. u.s. intelligence officials say they have penetrated iran's nuclear program and iran is at least a year or more away from building weapon. many experts agree. >> we don't think they will break out in a sense and build nuclear weapons, we're talking about something off in the future. >> israel says iran can past the point of no return within months. israel is on alert against iranian terrorism after three explosions in bangkok tuesday, attacks on israeli diplomats in india and former soviet republican of georgia all blamed by is reuse iran. >> this looks like iranian retaliation for the killing of iranian scientists over the past two years. >> iranian scientists most experts believed were killed by israel despite denials. u.s. officials have been shuttle to tel aviv pleading not to attack iran as war ship play cat and mouse. the choke point for one fifth of the world's oil. >> andrea mitchell reporting. the threats of economic retaliation in europe helped pushed oil prices to the highest level in five weeks. a new wave of attack on rebel fighters in syria as government forces open fire in the birth place of the uprising that began last march. the attacks come a day after syrian president assad ordered a new refer -- jake carney called it laughable and suggested it made a mockery of the syrian revolution. fierce fighting in homs, a pipeline erupted in flames. both sides blamed each other. in another troubling sign, u.s. officials say fighters linked to al qaeda are now carrying out attacks in syria in an effort to increase influence in the region. terrible story out of honduras, president is asking for international help investigating a horrific prison fire that killed at least 358 people yesterday. it's the world's worst prison fire in a century. officials warn the death toll could climb higher. guards were kept from entering the compound over concerns a breakout was underway they thought it was a scheme. the prison was built to hold 400 inmates, more than twice that number were crowded in those cells. another generation of the kennedy clan making a move in massachusetts politics. joseph kennedy iii grandson of robert f. kennedy will announce his bid for the house seat being vacated by congressman barney frank. mr. frank supports kennedy's campaign. kennedy is a harvard law school grad served in the peace corpss in the dominican republican. three other democrats and two other republicans are seeking the state held for so long by barney frank. still ahead on "way too early" lin-sanity rolls on as the point guard who went from near anonymity leads the knicks to the seventh straight win. highlight in sports. there are two endorsements every republican candidate covets, jeb bush and the other from lead singer of mega-death. we're waiting for jeb, but we have an answer on the mega-death enforcement. we'll bring it to you and check weather when way too early comes back. i ensure we will always keep the because we know the feeling of our people the mind of our people, and we are trying to do the things well and agree with their feelings. ahh, one. two. three. one. two. and, three. 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[ foreman ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. 5:44 as you look at washington and jefferson memorial. good timing. a check of the weather from bill karins, good morning. >> we lost money in vegas yesterday. >> how is that? >> we bet you wouldn't be in. >> i'm here. >> you're a trooper. >> we had barnicle as a back-up plan at the top of the show. but i came, yes. >> let me break down willie, we talked about potential for nor'easter in new england, that gets people's attention you think windy stormy, it will be a storm but a rain storm. temperatures too warm once again, we'll watch that on sunday. especially heavy rain in the southeast, mid-atlantic, may clip portions of new england, unless you're in the mountains of appalachians, this is going to be a rain event. get down to today's forecast, we have wet weather, light rain throughout the ohio valley, little bit of a wintery mix in pennsylvania and central new york, but later on today that will change over to all rain for the big cities, not going to see travel trouble, temperatures in the mid-40s, southeast we have rainy weather this morning, middle of the country looks great, beautiful day around kansas city, st. louis, oklahoma city, too, and chicago, no complaints there. willie, bottom line missing out on another snow storm, just rain on sunday. >> rain in february. who wants it. thanks so much. turn to sports, you know this jeremy lin things when they run out of lin pun. dish upon a star. a little fine print, linning streak continues. new york city and large portions of country as evidenced by the cover of sports illustrated, the guy is on the cover of sports illustrated, you never heard his name two weeks ago. all in the grip, the vice grip of lin-sanity. knicks are undefeated since he earned the starting job of point guard going for the seventh in the row. arena packed with lin fans, some debuting lin puns. are you not lintertained. making his presence felt, beautiful alley oop pass for the dunk to fields. kicked to stoudemire, beautiful pass. knicks up 8 off the pick and roll. chandler, few minutes later lin to chandler, new york up 18 at the half, win 100-85. lin had 10 points but career high 13 assists. 7 knicks players finished in double digits scoring. one player absence during the winning streak, carmelo anthony, seen chatting on the bench with lin during the game. a lot of people raising the question whether a superstar like anthony can co-exist on the court with lin when he returns from injury. in an interview he discussed that and also talked about lin's game winning buzzer beater on tuesday. >> if carmelo anthony is on the floor at jeremy lin, who is taking the last shot, how does carmelo anthony answer that question? >> i want to take the last shot. i have been doing it for nine years already, i made a ton of them. >> if people say carmelo anthony is a selfish player, how do you respond? >> that is like a slap in the face. never been a selfish player none of my teammate coteammates. >> lin -- the coach says anthony could return to the line-up a key element of romney's campaign message has been slamming president obama for doling out favors to big labor and union bosses who contributed to his campaign in 2008. you want to sound smart today, tell your friends according to a group, labor groups contributed $206.7 million to obama to democrats during the 2008 campaign cycle. $68 million came from direct contributions, and the rest spent by outside labor groups with ties to 527 organizations, those numbers are only what was reported. enough of the real news, let's gather around the water cooler to reveal at long last the endorsement that just may change the face of this presidential race and, indeed, that of american politics forever. megadeath front man dave mustane has come out and endorsed rick santorum. megadeath for santorum. how does that sound? in an interview with musicradar.com, he admits he didn't know much about rick santorum until recently when the candidate announced his brief break from the trail in january to return home to his sick daughter. he admired that decision he said and believes santorum has "some presidential qualities." so rick santorum has megadeath of all groups in his camp. some other musicians who have endorsed candidates this go around, gene simmons of kiss is behind mitt romney, kelly clarkson and barry manilow are behind ron paul. one endorsement that didn't quite pan out, wayne newton's nod to michele bachmann back in october. >> good luck to both of you. >> thank you very much. and thank you for allowing me this. >> thank you. thank you. >> there it is. the kiss she never asked for. mr. mustane from megadeath is one of the original members of metallica. well, i look a little rough this morning. let's get it out in the open. i was a guest on "watch what happens live" and as i say, it's live. that's me on the right wearing my jeremy lin t-shirt. and that in the middle, the great lil kim. hip hop icon and, of course, our good friend andy coe want. we're doing a shotski right there. there's a shot glass, there's three of them lined up on a ski. takes coordination and a strong stomach. i believe that was whiskey of some kind. i was coerced into playing andy coe want's plead the fifth game. you can only plead the fifth on one of the questions. >> willie geist, who is smarter? joe or mika? >> mika. >> willie geist, tell us one embarrassing thing about brian williams that might annoy him. >> smells like bologna. >> willie geist, who is the hottest female politician right now. >> the hottest. i still have a fifth, don't i? >> you do. >> go for it. >> let's go with -- i'm going to go off the grid a little bit. let's go with south carolina governor nikki haley. >> he didn't plead the fifth, everybody. willie don't care. >> there you go. the comment was in reference earlier lil kim said i smell like bologna. jon stewart making the rounds last night stopping by david letterman. >> the guy i feel worse for is romney. >> mitt? >> well, not just for that. because he's the guy you know is like considers himself next in line, the guy at line at the deli, but i'm number six. but they don't like him. the voters. >> yes. >> and he's like -- because he wants to be a regular guy but he can't be himself. he puts on jeans but you know he's got his suit pants underneath it. like he's in a bar, sure, i used to hang out in this bar. get me one of those malted hop drinks. like he's -- nothing is authent authentic. i realize that rick santorum is the guy mitt romney's pretending to be. now they're up against each other in these debates and there's a certain inauthentic quality. >> yeah. he reminds me of the guy that you see on the package of underpants. you and i look at these two different ways. >> oh, dave. still got it. still ahead on "way too early." 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