Fans often come up with a short list of bad omens, wrong-headed decisions and misfortune.

"Wrong-headed decisions like this one will shift costs to insurers that should be borne by manufacturers."

Is the company making this wrong-headed decision just to placate a director's last-minute whim?

"Somehow I thought you might make a basically wrong-headed decision like that, Brim," she said, her voice rising shrilly.

In one of the most spectacularly wrong-headed decisions in the history of spinning, Mrs. Clinton's enforcer-friend, Susan Thomases, recruited Mr. Stewart to tell the story in March '94.

And it left Edward G. Rendell, the Democratic National Committee's general chairman, in the embarrassing position of telling CNN that Mr. Gore had forfeited the election by making wrong-headed decisions about advertising and not sufficiently turning to Mr. Clinton to stump for the ticket.