Or, take the constant plight of Kennedy, who commentators tend to assume is the decisive vote in each of the court's most important cases.
Their final challenge before the decisive vote involved eating four dishes each in a bushtucker trial, including ingredients such as live cockroaches and a witchetty grub.
BBC: Charlie Brooks wins I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
When Congress upset the BJP party to regain control, the decisive vote of an unhappy rural sector (half the country) was a reminder of how democracy provides a healthy outlet for pent-up sentiment.
In the end the decisive vote in New Orleans will come not from those householders who are determined to return but from those who are currently unsure whether to rebuild or move on.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote in close cases, joined the four more liberal justices in raising questions about a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that is being challenged at the court.
Speaking at the White House shortly after the decisive vote in the Senate, President Obama said it was "pretty likely that the uncertainty surrounding the raising of the debt ceiling for businesses and consumers has been unsettling".
Now, in each and every one of the earlier cases, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cast the decisive fifth vote back when.
But if they do, lobbyist Sharry would urge them to think about 2012 and the decisive Latino vote that will have grown even bigger by then.
The list will go to a decisive public vote on the Music Walk of Fame website in May.
BBC: Walk of Fame honours world's music greats on Camden street
Capturing the Hispanic vote in Nevada could provide an important edge going into the races in California, New York and New Jersey, battleground states where the Hispanic vote could be decisive.
Since the argument over the underground was central to the mayoral election, Mr Livingstone's decisive victory looked like a vote against the government's plan.
If the Senate returns to being "the nation's mediator, " the results of its work can pass the Republican House the way the "fiscal cliff" deal did -- by a decisive vote among Democrats, coupled with a minority of the Republicans.
The popular vote, which is symbolically and politically important but not decisive in the race, remains very close.
BBC: President Barack Obama defeats Romney to win re-election
The decisive hurdle for the deal is a vote by Euronext's shareholders on December 19th.
In 1960, for example, the popular vote was a virtual tie, but the Electoral College tally was decisive.
Multiply a 1 in 2 chance that Ohio picks the winner by a 1 in 2, 900 chance that each vote in that state is decisive and you get the 1 in 5, 800 chance.
With a vote of 89-8 in the Senate, clearly a decisive, non-partisan agreement was achieved meaning the bill produced would get an up or down vote on the floor of the House.
FORBES: Will Boehner-Cantor Rift Blow Up The Fiscal Cliff Deal?
This won't be because the Silicon Valley tech vote is large and decisive.
The Democrats award delegates based on a proportion of the vote, and Tuesday's primaries and caucuses were less decisive than in the Republican races, where many states awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis.
CNN: No rest for Clinton, Obama; 7 more contests fast approach
Both sides claimed victory in the vote, with Hewlett-Packard saying that it was winning a "decisive majority" of votes for the deal.
For example, Mr Alito's vote was decisive in upholding a rule in Kansas obliging jurors to impose the death penalty in murder cases where they deem aggravating and mitigating factors to be of equal weight.
Last year, he made history with his decisive vote upholding most of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, preserving the signature initiative of a president who, as a senator, had voted to keep him off the high court.
All this suggests that health care itself may not prove decisive at November's elections, even as that vote itself may end up determining the fate of health reform.
应用推荐