That is over 50 million people or every fifth person, or twenty times more than the number of Green party supporters in the last election. The German Nazis initially received only about 10 % of the votes before their grabbed power in 1933.
I agree it is significantly less than the share of Bush supporters - but given the extremity of the issue, it is scary that as much as 20% of the population support it. By the same logic, if 20% of the population supported, say, public torture or cannibalism, it would not be "only" but "the frighteningly high" 20%.
I agree, however, that the Bushies seemed to miscalculate public sentiments on this issue in the same way they did in the Monica Lewinsky affair, which is a good news. The bad news is that the Democrats will be nice to them is will not exploit that gaffe to their advantage.
Wojtek