The Emperor

A few nights ago, I heard someone refer to Barack Obama as Emperor Obama. This has become a common thing I've heard as Obama continues to make moves that will lead to a bigger federal government controlling more of our lives.

This got me thinking about the most famous emperor of all...Emperor Palpatine, who ruled a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. As I thought about it, I thought a lot of "Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith", and surprisingly, I found several parallels between Emperor Palpatine's rise to power and President Obama's rise to power.

-Palpatine was preceded by Chancellor Valorum, who was a good man, but largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition. Obama was preceded by George W. Bush, who is a good man, but was largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition.

-Palpatine rose to the Chancellor's spot, not because of who he was, but because of sympathy generated by the plight of Naboo during "Phantom Menace". Obama rose to the Presidency, not because of who he is, but because his teleprompter was better than John McCain's teleprompter.

-Palpatine used a series of galactic crises to gather more power for himself and his executive office. Obama has used the economic crisis to take over 2 auto companies, control the banking industry and appoint approximately 3 dozen czars, gathering more power for himself and the executive branch.

-Palpatine paid lip service to democracy, while orchestrating it's downfall. Obama pays lip service to democracy, while pushing a socialist agenda.

-Palpatine had Darth Maul and then Count Dooku as his apprentice, willing to do his bidding without question. Obama has Joe Biden...which is sort of the same, right?

Look, I'm not saying Obama is going to start wearing black robes and shooting lightning from his fingers. I'm not saying he is going to orchestrate a reorganization of our democracy into an empire. But, if Sean Hannity eventually becomes liberal, becomes Obama's right hand man, and is then confined to a black suit that makes him talk like James Earl Jones, you can't say I didn't warn you about all this.