matter, penn state university. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. but first, a stunning new shift in the republican race for the presidency. our new polls shows gingrich gained 14 points since october. that puts him in a virtual tie for the lead with mitt romney. herm yan can dropped 11 points. that puts him in a battle for third place right now with rick perry. ron paul and michele bachmann follow with jon huntsman and rick santorum rounding out the field. herman cain s plunge comes as he struggled with allegations of sexual harassment going back pour than a decade. now herman cain s wife is speaking out, but she isn t the only one. cnn s joe john says tracking the latest developments for us. and there have been many joe, what s the late snef. with herman cain losing status in the polls, the latest person to talk about the sexual harassment controversy happens to be a man. it is a case in the court of public opinion where proof, illusive. herman cain says
correspondent susan candiotti is finding out, children aren t the only ones to blame here. reporter: the mayor goes for a nighttime stroll to prove a point. his city he says is safe. yet four times in the last year, so-called flash mobs, mainly teens, used texting and the internet to prompt gatherings that turned ugly. they take advantage of the large group and from that, all kind of mayhem results. reporter: mayhem like teens running through stores, including this macy s, merchandise destroyed, fights breaking out. in all, nearly 30 juveniles are convicted in the incidents. are the kids down there all just a bunch of troublemakers? of course not. reporter: 16-year-old charnell was there last saturday night but says she wasn t involved in any trouble. she s part of a citywide student association that add vo indicates positive activities. what do you want people to know about philadelphia and the kids in philadelphia? that we are not a flash mob. reporter: community activi
everyone from the campaign world knows you have to have grass roots to win. this is the grass roots movement of the conservative movement right now. i ve been a part of some of the tea party events. i know there s a lot of speculation about them, but there s a lot of great grass roots organizers there that the republicans need onboard. i was going to say, it depends on which part of the tea party movement you re talking about, because while i understand what jordan and the constitutional conservatives are for, the new york times today had a terrific story about some of the other elements grafting onto the tea party movement that are extremely troubling. and take on the language of the patriot movement that add vo indicates a lot of things that i don t think that jordan and other constitutional conservatives would be for. of course not. of course we don t advocate for those statements. we don t support the radicalism that can be tied on. but it s truly a grass roots movement. it d