Cliché Corner   

"A good argument can be made that no athletes are more affected by marriage and what's happening in their personal lives than golfers. It's the great X-factor in the game."
Houston Chronicle

"In a year when Gov. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have been pushing to enter candidates in more races than ever before, the gay marriage issue looms as an X-factor."
Massachusetts' Worcester Telegram & Gazette

"And the X-factor, Randle said, is Southern hospitality. Toyota officials, he said, 'love the way they're treated down here....' "
San Antonio Express-News

"Cravins, who is black, is the X-factor in the race, because if he decides to run, he would likely secure a runoff spot...."
Roll Call

"The ROII — a Gloucester-based foundation dedicated to spreading the ideas of a management theorist named Elliott Jaques — has dramatically announced that they've found the electability X factor."
Boston Globe

"Good basketball teams usually find an X-factor to take them over the hump."
Columbus Dispatch

"To borrow a phrase from reality TV, he was missing the X-factor."
Georgia's Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

From more than 500 references from January through mid-March