And on the national level, the size and longevity of Mr Bush's lead is less important than the mere fact of it.
His government's longevity, which Mr Netanyahu was presumably trying to reduce, may even have been enhanced by the Likud infighting.
Sachin Tendulkar, the "God of cricket", has been padded up for India.The longevity of Mr Tendulkar, who will retire at the end of 2013, is one reason he is so revered.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson paid tribute to the longevity of Mr Salmond, who has led his party twice, over a period of 20 years.
"The turtle for us symbolizes -- ah -- longevity," Mr. Zezov said.
From the beginning the band was geared for longevity, Mr. Mumford said.
Though pleased at Mr. Kennan's longevity, Mr. Gaddis also finds himself stymied.
Asked for a scientific reason for his longevity, Mr. Perlman said, "I really don't know — it's a mystery".
"It isn't going to be cheap, like Ikea, so we wanted to give the pieces longevity," Mr. Marriott said.
The key to the group's longevity, Mr. Dunham, the pianist, said flatly, "is they pay us next to nothing, and we manage to draw a crowd".
In a sign of his longevity, Mr. Merwin earned Yale University's Bollingen Prize — a career capstone for most poets — in 1979, decades before he produced some of his most acclaimed work, including the National Book Award-winning "MigratioNewNew and Selected Poems" (2005) and "The Shadow of Sirius," an autobiographical volume that earned him his second Pulitzer in 2009.
