this morning on "early today" -- russia i indicated is a geopolitical foe. >> the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back. >> who won, who lost, and did the final debate help undecided voters decide? bill and hillary clinton visit haiti together to assess progress only to reveal a deeply personal connection. we'll explain. and the most affordable cities to live in the united states. is yours one of them? captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. i'm lynn berry. well, after the third debate between president obama and republican nominee mitt romney, there are just 14 days left

before american voters choose their next president. and according to a cbs news instant poll of uncommitted voters, president obama was a clear two-to-one victor with 53% saying he won. governor romney got 23%. 24% called it a tie. a cnn orc international poll called the debate a little closer with 48% saying obama won while 40% picked obama. for more on last night's heated foreign policy debate we go now to nbc's steve handlesman. he's in florida for us. steve, good morning. >> reporter: hi, lynn. thanks. good morning from boca raton, florida. well, the debate here last night was clearly the most combative so far. though surprising to some, not on the issue of libya. but mitt romney was able to make his larger point, his claim that america is weaker now overseas than it was four years ago. mitt romney and barack obama came to their third and final debate tied in national polls,

but their tv audience seemed sure to be smaller. baseball's national league playoffs and monday night football got millions of viewers who missed the face-off in florida on the rise of muslim extremism. >> i congratulate him on taking out osama bin laden and going after the leadership in al qaeda, but we can't kill our way out of this. >> governor romney, i'm glad that you recognize that al qaeda is a threat because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geo political threat facing america, you said russia. what we need to do with respect to the middle east is strong, steady leadership, not wrong and reckless leadership. >> attacking me is not an agenda. i have clear eyes on this. i'm not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to russia or mr. putin. >> what about iran? >> now there are some 10,000 centrifuges spinning uranium preparing to create a nuclear threat to the united states and to the world. that's unacceptable for us and it's essential for a president to show strength. >> reporter: mr. obama said he has.

>> we've put in the toughest, most crippling sanctions ever. >> they do work. you're seeing it right now in the economy. >> the disagreement i have with governor romney is that during the course of this campaign he's often talked as if we should take premature military action. >> of course military action is the last resort. >> reporter: they touched on economic issues. >> i will get america working again. >> reporter: president obama recycling an attack. >> both home and abroad he has proposed wrong and reckless policies. >> reporter: their final face to face. the election two weeks away. >> reporter: again, this race looks tied, and both sides agree, nothing, no one single thing is more likely to affect the outcome of this campaign than this debate. in boca raton, florida, i'm steve handlesman, nbc news. lynn, back to you. >> steve, thanks so much. well, nbc's andrea mitchell has been leading our post debate truth squad, and last night during our special coverage with brian williams, she zeroed in on

one of mitt romney's most frequent attack lines against the president. >> and then the president began what i've called an apology tour of going to various nations in the middle east and criticizing america. i think they looked at that and saw weakness. >> bob, let me just respond. nothing governor romney just said is true starting with this notion of me apologizing. this has been probably the biggest whopper that's been told during the course of this campaign. >> reporter: the president pushes back very hard on this. in fact, he never used the word apologize when he went overseas to cairo in 2009 explaining that he thought the u.s. had made some mistakes in dealing with the world. many consider it a matter of diplomacy, a matter of nuance, but these are open to interpretation, and romney points to several examples including when president obama said in strassburg in 2009 that, quote, america has shown some arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive. romney claims that shows weakness which is harmful to the

u.s. place in the world. >> governor romney has charged repeatedly that the president hasn't been as close a friend or ally as he could or should be. let's take a look at this. >> and i think that when the president said he was going to create daylight between ourselves and israel, that they noticed that as well. all of these things suggested, i think, to the iranian mullahs that, hey, we can keep pushing along here, we can keep talks going on but we're just going to keep on spinning centrifuges. >> reporter: well, brian, there's never been any proof that the president ever said that. the only source for this is an article in "the washington post" by scott wilson who wrote that the president said this in a meeting with the leaders of many jewish organizations. >> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. well, this week with brian williams, he's going to be going on the road for an exclusive interview with president obama. you'll be able to see that on

"today," "nightly news," and "rock center." here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. we're going to begin with some new developments surrounding jesse jackson jr.'s battle with his bipolar disorder. the illinois congressman is said to be in a fragile state while still running for re-election. congressman bobby rush and danny davis visited their friend and colleague at his washington, d.c., home. davis and rush said jackson displayed surprising sharpness and acknowledged that he needed continued treatment. jackson is headed back to minnesota's mayo clinic for further in-patient care. california engineers are look into the state's 20,000 bridges and overpasses to see if they're earthquake ready. the state has been busy retrofitting many structures over the past dozen years. officials are working with a simulation program to see which bridges could collapse during a major quake. finally, a group of divers received artistic inspiration from this year's presidential candidate. they carved the faces of mitt

romney and barack obama into pumpkins. pretty impressive job. not everyone was left out. they threw in snoopy there. the contest featured designs less politically driven as well. now for a look at your weather, we'll check in with meteorologist bill karins. he has your weather channel forecast. good morning, bill. >> good morning. big storm in the west. i was up late watching the baseball game and it ended in a downpour in san francisco. congratulations to the giants. as far as yesterday went, we had severe storms that even produced some small tornadoes. they didn't do too much damage, blew over a couple things here and there, knocked off a couple of shingles on the roof, knocked over an 18-wheeler. reports of a couple funnel clouds and tornadoes outside sacramento. today we could see similar conditions, probably not as dynamic as yesterday. we got heavy rain for this month of october already. two to three inches in the northwest. a half inch in san francisco. none of that has made its way down to southern l.a.

upper level low still spinning off the coast. in other words, it's still a mess out there. many areas of rain. interstate 80 is a little better. up around tahoe it's still coming down hard. the cold front cleared out. the snow levels have lowered. showers from eureka to crescent city. a more concentrated area of rain through the washington coastline. we are going to keep it kind of stormy here. we may get breaks every now and then and you could see few areas with small hail near much of an from the storm system in san diego and arizona, just cooler temperatures. slow improvement tomorrow, but it's really not until about thursday and friday that we actually calm it all down.

bill and hillary to haiti. and iran's president on the outs. headlines are straight ahead. the fda investigating deaths that may be associated with monster energy drink. you're watching "early today."

stories making news this morning, former president bill clinton and secretary of state hillary clinton inaugurated a $300 million industrial park in haiti. during her speech, secretary clinton revealed her and her husband's deep connection to that country. >> we came here for the first time together just after we were married and fell in love with haiti and have just celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary, which is exhausting to think about. iranian president mahmoud amadinejad is blasting his country's judiciary for

rejecting a request to visit his media advisor in prison. the refusal is seen as a sign of the leader is waning in influence. and an italian court has convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter for failing to warn residents of a 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central italy. the defense argued there's no reliable way of predicting quakes. minutes ago a russian soyuz spaceship blasted off carrying two cosmonauts and an american astronaut to the international space station. it's expected to arrive later this week. well, in health news, is there a link between monster energy drinks and the death of five people? well, that's what the food & drug administration wants to know. they're launching an investigation into claims against the highly caffeinated drink. the company is also being sued by the family of a 14-year-old girl who had a heart attack

after drinking monster energy, two 24 ounce drinks in 24 hours. a spokesperson for monster said they don't believe their products caused any deaths. now let's get a check of wall street. the dow closed at 13,345 after adding two points yesterday. the s&p was up a fraction. the nasdaq gained 11. taking a look at overseas trading on this tuesday in tokyo, the nikkei was up three points while in hong kong the hang seng rose 145. well, call it high tech tuesday. up first, the market's react to yahoo's encouraging earnings after the bell monday. next, apple will be front and center before, during, and after its much hyped ipad mini event. then after the bell, facebook's second earnings report as a public company. elsewhere, despite signs of life from the housing market, realty track's new election 2012 report finds 65% of local housing markets nationwide are worse off than four years ago. more sobering data comes to

us from the pew center which finds 35 to 44-year-olds are now the most worried about retirement. that is a stark contrast from just three years ago when generation x was the least concerned about retirement funds. a new study ranks the nation's capital as the most affordable u.s. city. the study factors housing and transportation costs against median income. baltimore, philadelphia, minneapolis, and boston rounded out the top five. and finally, what does this guy have in common with brad pitt and george clooney? not as much as he thought. las vegas police are now looking for the 31-year-old southern california man they say he stole $1.6 million in high-value casino chips from the venetian resort this month. the problem with the ocean's 11esque heist, those high-denomination chips are virtually impossible to cash in undetected. coming up next, the champions of the national league are headed to the world series,

plus a painful body slam sack on monday night football. your sports headlines are straight ahead. well, if you live in the northern half of the country, quick changing weather is the rule as we go throughout the next four or five days. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

well, in sports, let's start with baseball and the decisive game seven of the national league championship series. it was a very one-sided game as san francisco pounded out hit after hit against st. louis and run after run as they shut out the cards 9-0. the end of the game was played in pouring rain. >> that should end it. and who else? scutaro. and the giants have won the pennant. >> didn't take away from the celebrating. game one of the 108th world series starts tomorrow night in san francisco against the tigers. starting pitchers will be barry zito for the giants and justin verlander for the tigers. now, over to monday night football. lions, bears, and the first quarter, chicago's jay cutler rolled out and hit brandon marshall with a 7-yard touchdown pass. in the second quarter cutler got sacked in what looked more like a wwe body slam. that looks like it hurt. he returned and the bears held

on to beat the lions, 13-7. cyclist lance armstrong has officially been stripped of his seven tour de france titles. and now the texas company that paid armstrong $12 million for winning those titles is threatening a lawsuit to get back their money. before the official action, his twitter read, father of five amazing kids. earlier today he changed it, raising my five kits, fighting cancer, swim, bike, golf, run, whenever i can. look at this basket brawl. this is the scene before tipoff at a european professional baseball in montenegro on sunday night. fans just charged onto the court. they were throwing chairs, road flares and other things at rival fans. police in riot gear had to rush in. they made arrests while the players were treated to the locker rooms until the fans calmed down. and by the way, the team whose

fans started the chaos actually lost the game. just ahead, ellen gets high honors and jessica's pink italian wedding. plus, running with the bulls american style. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this tuesday morning. a lot of snow in the central

sierra, moving to the inner mountain west during the day. rain lingering in seattle and portland. down towards the coast it looks like we could deal with wet weather. dry in vegas an phoenix. tomorrow it looks similar, but it will slowly improve. we've gone through the worst of the storm. well, now for some entertainment news. ellen degeneres has received the nation's highest humor prize. last night the kennedy center presented her with the mark twain for american humor. degeneres was praised as a pioneering female comic whose edgy variety show has helped define daytime television in recent years. she looks excited. well, there are reports jessica biel ditched the traditional white wedding dress for her vows with justin timberlake in southern italy friday and went with a nontraditional pink and white gown from an italian designer. and finally, tmz reports a plus size dating site has offered singer and coach of "the voice" christina aguilera 3 million bucks to be their spokesman.

whether or not aguilera will accept the offer remains to be seen. this comes to us from kpnx, 12 news in phoenix, arizona. american dare devils added some western flair to their imitation of pamplona's running with the bulls. got a little creative here. this stampeding herd chased down hundreds of adrenaline junkies across nine acres. the massive animals didn't gore anyone but they did injure eight people including one man who was sent flying into a fence. yikes. that just does not look fun at all. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

in england, one hollywood icon is phoning home in wax. madame tussauds' wax museum unveiled their latest creation, steven spielberg's hit character e.t. the statue celebrates the 30th anniversary of the film which still attracts plenty of young viewers. visitors can pose with e.t. in the flight basket taking off in one of the film's most memorable scenes. >> e.t. phone home. >> bill is scaring us this morning. well, gentlemen, start your mowers. the british grand prix for lawn mower racing took place in the muddiest of fields making for some wet and wild racing. competitors say it didn't dampen the spirit of the game but it did slow things down a bit. and don't joke about the sport. these racers take it seriously with some of these mowers costing more than the average used car. it is business. and finally in dubai, one cafe might have you asking,

where's the beef? that's because cafe to go has added a modern twist to traditional arab delicacies by serving camel milk and meat in their coffee and dishes. that's instead of cow. patrons can try camel lattes, camel chinos and camel meat fajitas. the camel milk has apparently a different taste and smell but it's more nutritious than cow milk and a lot of customers say they like it. it's a little bit different. >> here's your choice. i'm going to give you the choice of the camel milk or the camel burger. which one are you going for? >> i'm going with camel milk. >> i'm going for the burger. >> really? >> i can cover it up with as much ketchup as i want. >> solid point, and cheese. >> yes. all right. time for now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. now that the debates are over the president and his republican rival shift their focus back to the campaign trail. president obama speaks at an event in del ray beach, florida, this morning before heading to

ohio for an appearance with vice president biden. governor romney and running mate paul ryan will campaign in nevada and colorado. england's prince charles and the duchess of cornwall will attend the london world premiere of the new james bond film "skyfall." this month marks the 50th anniversary of the 007 franchise. and actor ryan reynolds turns 36 today. all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan weigh in on last night's presidential debate. and tony bennett is live in studio to perform a duet from his new cd alongside a surprise guest. and now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com