The Curse of the Bambino that fell upon the Boston Red Sox when they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankeeswas lifted in 2004. But maybe it just moved to another Massachusetts team. Maybe Mitt Romney and his campaign are now under the curse.

What happens in an election when two candidates who are unelectable run against each other in the fall? We are about to test that proposition. 

As we get ready to hear President Obama’s third State of the Union address and all the discussion and analysis that will go along with it, let’s try to understand where the citizens of America are at this moment and why the unfolding of the presidential race reflects the sentiments of much of the country. 

I often have written of many myths and fictions that get adopted in politics and the discussion of campaigns. Another one has recently developed, and it has to do with impact of television ads and specific state campaign activities. 

An increasing number of voices in the media and political classes are crowning Mitt Romney as the inevitable Republican nominee. As I wrote in my column earlier this week, although I believe that he has best odds today of winning the whole thing and is likely to do so, he is not inevitable.

 Given that the NFL playoffs begin this weekend and college basketball is heading into   the fun of March playoff brackets, this seems like an appropriate time to take a look at the sport of running for president.

Many times we each get caught up in stories and we keep repeating them, even though they no longer apply to the current reality. We ignore facts along the way that give us opposing evidence because it just seems easier and more comfortable to keep repeating a story or narrative that we have made part of ourselves. 

Last night, watching Denver quarterback Tim Tebow’s post-game press appearance and President Obama’s interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, I was struck by the fact that one man is offering his team (and the country actually) the leadership they need while the other is trapped in traditional discourse and scoring political points. 

Trying to get a handle on the wild and seemingly unpredictable ride of the Republican nomination process seems a bit of an impossible task. With the rise and fall of many candidates, the fall and rise of one candidate  in particular and a new front-runner seeming to emerge each month, there seems to be no unifying measurement to gauge things.

As we approach the Iowa caucuses, and with folks getting ready to make a very important decision in which the passion of the voters and momentum are the most important factors in determining who wins, who exceeds expectations and who drops off, I want to take a moment to reflect on how we make decisions in our own lives.