Also Surging: Santorum's Sweater Vests

As Rick Santorum surges in the Iowa polls, his collection of sweater vests is also winning popularity. Santorum has taken to wearing the sleeveless V-necks while campaigning in Iowa; the sartorial choice apparently first garnered attention at a Des Moines forum a few weeks ago during which most other candidates wore suits. "It sort of took on a life of its own" after that, he explains. "So I started wearing more and more. My staff bought me a bunch more." They even, the New York Times notes, had vests embroidered with his campaign logo.

The vests have a Twitter feed, Facebook page, and music video (watch at left). Why does he wear them? In order to look older, he told Laura Ingraham yesterday, according to Politico. Pointing out that he, at age 53, was mistaken for 32 while in Iowa, Santorum said, "I’m thinking the sweater vest makes me look a little older and that might be a good thing." But it's not all light news for Santorum today: Dana Milbank wrote a particularly scathing piece on the candidate for the Washington Post, pointing out a number of Santorum's errors and inconsistencies. Predicts Milbank, "He won’t last long as a top-tier presidential candidate if he doesn’t improve his game." Click to read Milbank's piece. (More Rick Santorum stories.)