wake-up call. i m christine romans in for carol costello. this morning race officials will begin deciding how they ll investigate a wreck that killed a two are-time indy 500 winner. 33-year-old dan wheldon was one of a record 34 cars on the las vegas track. on lap 12, the unthinkable. cars spinning out of control, bursting into flames, several actually going airborne. three drivers were treated for injuries, wheldon was airlifted to the hospital where he eventually died. the race was canceled. but the drivers did return to cirque tl track five times as a tribute, some of them in tears. dan wheldon s factr in law remembers one of the last times they spoke. i just told him that i just wanted one thing, dan, i told him, i said you need you to win. i didn t say i need you to win, but that would be the birthday present i d like to have from you. he said my car is kind of slow, they re working on it. so hopefully we ll do our best. i said have a safe race. he was supposed to go
brand-new cnn/orc poll shows cain in a dead heat with mitt romney at the top of the gop field and cain s gain is rick perry s loss. the texas governor now a distant third. if you don t believe fortunes change in a heartbeat, take a look at this. just a month ago perry was riding high and cain polled a mere 9%. want to bring in my comrade in politics, paul stein houser, the venetian hotel at casino. hey, paul, can herman cain take these numbers to the bank or should we expect, you know, a bounce-back? yeah, i wouldn t take them to the bank yet, because, joe, this race has changed so much. listen, back in the summer we saw michele bachmann jump up in the polls, then go down. we saw the same thing with rick perry. will it happen to herman cain in maybe. other polling from our brand-new cnn polls, two-thirds of republicans say they re not 100% married yet to their candidate. they may change their mind. only about 1 in 3 republicans say i m definitely sticking with the candidate
into the 10 months old disappearance. what prompted the national guard s involvement now? honestly what prompted this is a lack of any other leads. police it tell us they haven t made any breakthroughs on the case. they re trying to get fresh eyes on this investigation. take a look here, as you mentioned 25 national guardsmen deployed here to research this area a few blocks away from the home. these are especially trained mps, and they ve been trained in it. joining fbi and local law enforcement here to just try to bring a fresh set of eyes, go through everything, make sure they haven t missed anything. here s what the national guard told us about their search. with the additional man power, they re able to research or search the area with like a fine tooth comb. they re able to get down in the grass, dig in the dirt, try to find any glues that helps. they re low crawling under bushes and vines. and here s exactly what they re talking about. take a look at this thicket.
but what s going to prevent terrorists from buying and using them? i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com he entered the race at the top of the polls, but rick perry has been watching his numbers slide and slide. his momentum rather slow. now, with a closely watched speech, the texas governor is trying to reverse his declining campaign fortunes. jim acosta is joining us now. he delivered what his campaign described as a major speech today. that s right. the speech was called the energizing american jobs and security speech, wolf, but it was also designed to energize his campaign. looking to jump-start a campaign that s been stalled for weeks, rick perry laid out a texas-sized energy plan that the governor claims will create more than a million jobs. america s the saudi arabia of code. if elected president, perry says he ll push for new coal mining, oil exploration. perry would even expand production to the gulf of mexico
in it a poll this afternoon, he now leads in key swing and must win florida. cain beating romney there, 34-28. this comes on the heels of a national poll yesterday which put cain in the lead. now, cnn s polls of polls show that cain is still behind romney. just in that margin of error there, 23-20. whatever the case, it is no question that herman cain s popularity is surging. the national poll has you at number one. now the poll has you leading in south carolina and florida. what s your family thinking, and why do you think this happened, that you ve surged to the top? well, my family, they are not surprised. because they know me from my business career. because i ve always done some challenging things. but i believe this happened for two reasons. and it was first evidence with that florida straw poll. first, it demonstrates that the voice of the people is more important than the voice of the media, with all due respect. because for a while, as you know, some people in the