Real power, however, lay with military men, who only nominally supported Sun.
Moscow has nominally supported Abkhazia for years, but the Russian presence has expanded since formal recognition three years ago.
Talking to elected leaders, some of whom nominally supported Mr. Giannoulias, one gets an insider's guide to politics.
Anyone who may have nominally supported the idea of an end to Erdoğan's presidency melted away as news broke on Friday.
That is largely because the parties nominally supporting his government were looking to save their seats and did not want to alienate their constituents.
Democrats point out that polls show almost one in four Evangelicals nominally support their party; and, back in 1992, Bill Clinton won a third of the Evangelical vote.
But acting opposite Ben Stiller and Jeffrey Wright at the Public Theater in Mr. LaBute's acrid story of an interracial triangle, Ms. Peet stealthily turned a nominally supporting part into the play's moral and emotional center.
Now, apparently, Mr. Hevesi has been replaced as a target by Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer, as Mr. Giuliani angles to throw their bids for mayor into a frenzy, taking Michael Bloomberg, whom he was nominally supporting just a month ago, down with them.
Though he nominally supported a public option as a plank of health care reform, it was not a high priority and he rarely mentioned it, according to a review of his campaign speeches, interviews and debates by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post.
But although Mr. Monti has won over many Italians with his steady hand and flashes of wry irony, he faces continued resistance from the political parties that are nominally supporting his government but are eager to capitalize on rising popular discontent about new tax increases and an immediate rise in the retirement age.
