What's With Rick Santorum's Sweater Vests?

[Cali_Democrat]

Jordan Teicher | Jan. 5, 2012, 11:44 AM

When he's not the subject of traumatizing Google searches or the latest darling of America's social conservatives , Rick Santorum wears another hat: fashionista.

Santorum's personal uniform of late, a sweater vest over a collared shirt, has sparked increasing social media attention, including a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a YouTube music video called "Sleeves Slow Me Down." And with phrases including "Ninjas only wish they had such covert superpowers" and "Meet your demise terrorism" attributed to the garments, "the vest" has even begun to acquire its own cult of personality akin to that surrounding Chuck Norris' tongue-in-cheek machismo.

On Fox News Tuesday, he told Laura Ingraham that he began wearing the vests consistently after a speaking event in mid-December. "If there was one event that really began the moment, it was that speech," he said. "So all the sudden the sweater vest was like, 'Fear the vest.'"

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-with-rick-santorums-sweater-vests-2012-1


Personally, I think they look awful.

[DocMac]

1. That is how his wife dressed him this morning. nt

[Life Long Dem]

9. Same way she dresses the kids.

[DocMac]

21. That is really sad.

Kids being used to make a politician look electable.

Not even one of them look happy.

[ddeclue]

23. Children of the Corn...

[DesertRat]

25. Here's an updated family photo

[DocMac]

33. Well thats better.

The other photo looks like they all had a turtle head and their mom told em to stand still.

[DesertRat]

36. LOL n/t

[notadmblnd]

26. maybe he was raised in Mr. Rogers neighborhood?

To me it just says DOOFUS.

[surrealAmerican]

35. Hey, Mr. Rogers wore cardigans, not sweater vests ...

... and he was a far more admirable character than Santorum.

All knitwear is not the same.

[tridim]

2. He wears his magic underwear on the outside.

[flamingdem]

6. To confuse Romney!

nt

[sinkingfeeling]

3. He bought them used from Jim Tressel's moving sale.

[arbusto_baboso]

4. Nerd Jerseys

[PatSeg]

5. Evidently

he thinks they bring him luck due to a successful speech when he was wearing one.

But, yeah I agree, they look absolutely awful.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. Now that we're seeing fashion threads on male candidates,

I'm annoyed that I find them equally captivating as threads of female fashion. Paul Simon wore a bow tie. That didn't make his ideas less appealing. And if Santorum managed to dress like ... I can't find a male on the fashionista weblists. My point is why does it even matter? Santorum is a racist, idiot rightwing piece of human waste. He won't look good in a tux either.

[caveat_imperator]

32. "And if Santorum managed to dress like..."

Howard Cunningham from 'Happy Days'?

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Trying to contrast his K-Mart image with that of Mitt Romney's Brooks Brothers and Land's End

wardrobe.

[Angry Dragon]

10. trying to appeal to the common man

[Erose999]

11. So are we entering a new "ear of the common man" in american politics, where

Santorum and the SweaterVest are to now as Davy Crockett and the 'coonskin cap were to the 1820's? LOL

[The Wielding Truth]

12. I can still see his narrow minded idiotic righteousness behind that knitted cloth. Can't fool me.

[HopeHoops]

13. They're for wiping up the Santorum he leaves everywhere.

[tjwash]

14. I thought only accountants or retired dentists were legally allowed to wear those.

[monmouth]

15. He will never come close to Michael Steele. Now he's a fashionista...n/t

[MichiganVote]

16. Won't you be his neighbor?

[gkhouston]

17. Lizard People need an extra layer to seem warm. n/t

[Proud Public Servant]

18. They're a sign his campaign may know what it's doing

Santorum's sweater vests got savagely mocked VERY early on, back when he looked destined to be an asterisk in the Iowa results. Santorum's response to the mockery? He kept wearing sweater vests. It's like he's saying, "I am who I am. Don't like it? Tough sh!t. I'll be damned if I'm changing to make you happy." Given that he's now Romney's chief opposition, and given that Romney would make public appearances in a pith helmet, codpiece, and feather boa if he thought it would get him elected, Santorum's sweater vests actually bolster his cred as the anti-Romney.

I HATE Santorum, who was my Senator for his whole misbegotten Senate career, but I must admit the sweater vests are a smart move.

[DocMac]

24. All Mittens has to do now is wear one of those sweaters.

All of Santorum's thunder will be stolen. And cheap.

[woodsprite]

19. He thinks it makes him look like "Mr. Rogers". n/t

[Jazzgirl]

20. I have been wondering the same thing.

And they are ALL so ugly! He is definitely not the sweater vest type. Yech.

[ddeclue]

22. Mr. Rogers called... he wants his look back..

[librechik]

27. Kevlar

[Fourier]

28. They soak up a lot of santorum

[The Genealogist]

29. Fear the vest?

No, I don't fear the vest. While I think the vest makes him look really geeky (no, they don't make everyone look geeky, but they do it to him), I really could care less what he wears. My concern is his complete detachment from reality. He seems to think the crusades were a jim-dandy idea, his obsession with homosexuals and punishing them is chilling, and his flirting with racism and lying about having done so is disingenuous at best, dangerous at worst. I honestly can't imagine how he could win the election without neck-snappingly flagrant fraud, but he is still a scary person.

[Warren Stupidity]

30. He's channeling Glenn Beck?

[Blue Owl]

31. Actually works quite well with that haircut of his