High-profile endorsement for Kay Hutchison

Although I am a die-hard Democrat, I am constantly becoming more and more intrigued by the "competition" between Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The social media Web site that I utilize the most is facebook, and I am a follower of both Hutchison and Perry (just to keep up with the current events of course). I was comparing their two facebook pages this morning and there was one post on Hutchison's page that snagged my attention.

Today, former Vice President Dick Cheney announced he will campaign for Hutchison starting next month. Hutchison posted this information, as well as a link to the news article from the Austin-American Statesman, about her endorsement by Cheney. He will officially throw his endorsement behind Hutchison at an event in Houston, Texas, on November 17.

Dick Cheney is the highest profile endorsement that Hutchison has received so far in her campaign. I think that Hutchison is incredibly lucky to recieve support from Cheney, since he still has a great deal of popularity with the Republican Party. His popularity is substantially lower with the Democratic Party, and that's not just because he is a Republican. Many Democrats feel that Cheney was slightly pushing for war in Iraq, and feel it was a bit "questionable" that Halliburton (which Cheney was CEO of before he became Vice President) received so many contracts and so much money when we began rebuilding Iraq. Nonetheless, Hutchison couldn't ask for a better endorsement.

But this does not necessarily mean that Hutchison is a step above Rick Perry. Back in February of this year, Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin announced her support of Rick Perry's campaign for re-election. So, he has had the endorsement of a high-profile Republican, just as Hutchison now has. Even though Rick Perry may have had this advantage over Hutchison in the past months, they BOTH now they both have a high-profile endorsement. This could make things a bit more interesting in months to come.

I could not decide which politician I think could potentially be a better endorsement. I believe that Dick Cheney is very popular with a certain population segment (older, middle/upper class, white males), whereas Palin is popular with a different segment (probably younger, middle/upper class women). I do think it is interesting that Perry is receiving endorsement from a powerful FEMALE politician and Hutchison is recieving endoresement from a powerful MALE politician. So it looks like both candidates may be able to appeal to males AND females equally.

I do not think that either of the endorsements have a strong advantage over the other. I think it will help Perry that Palin has became popular recently (only within the last year) and therefore has received very recent media-coverage. On the other hand, Cheney's most recent widely publicized event was the hunting accident that occurred in 2006. So, maybe Palin actually will continue to attract the media-attention that Perry is wanting.

Who do you think may prove to be the better endorsement? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or former Vice President Dick Cheney? Or do you think they will both have their benefits and it may not make a great difference in the long-run? Or do you think that one has a distinct advantage over the other?