At first I thought something was wrong with my television. An image of Chuck Norris was bleeding into the coverage of the Iowa caucuses. I wasn't sure if it was a rerun of "Walker, Texas Ranger" or if I should be whipping out my credit card to respond to a Total Gym infomercial.

None of the above. It was martial arts guru Chuck Norris on the stump for Mike Huckabee.

But long before that, daytime talk show phenom Oprah Winfrey went on the campaign trail with Barack Obama, and poet Maya Angelou, who has an enduring relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton, declared Sen. Clinton "her girl."

Not to be outdone, Dennis Kucinich just announced that he has received the endorsement of actor Viggo Mortensen.

In the end, does any celebrity endorsement matter? Few people can generate as much buzz as Oprah. She turns books into best sellers and has launched the careers of Dr. Phil McGraw and Rachael Ray, to name two.

But in the privacy of the voting booth, is a voter more inclined to cast a ballot for Huckabee because they liked "Walker, Texas Ranger"? Or vote for Kucinich because they're "Lord of the Rings" fanatics?

A study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press says "NO!" In fact, the survey of 1,000 Americans says celebrity endorsements might actually hurt a candidate's chances. Especially if you're endorsed by Bill O'Reilly, Jay Leno, country crooner Toby Keith or Kanye West, according to poll results. Not surprising, the highest negative was scored by Donald Trump.

But some endorsements appear to have some heft, such as those of former Federal Reserve Bank chairman Alan Greenspan, one's respective governor and clergy.

Greenspan hasn't endorsed anyone, but it makes sense that people would listen because during his tenure as Fed chairman, the financial world hung on his every word. In a "60 Minutes" interview in September, Greenspan endorsed no one. He spoke positively of his working relationship with President Clinton, describing him as the smartest president he had served. When asked if Hillary Clinton could handle the presidency, he said, "Certainly, I think she's unquestionably capable. The question is, is she the best person for the job?"

When pressed if she was the best person for president of the United States, Greenspan said he tended to vote Republican. What was that? A tepid anti-endorsement?

Sadly, the Pew poll, released in September, showed endorsements by local newspaper editorial boards were a wash. Fourteen percent said they would be more likely to vote for a certain candidate based on a newspaper endorsement. But another 14 percent said they would be less likely to vote for the candidate.

That certainly was true in Iowa. The state's largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, endorsed Clinton and Republican John McCain in advance of the Iowa caucuses. Neither won.