'So This Is How Liberty Dies...With Thunderous Applause'

"So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause."

Such was ominously stated by the fictional character Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) in "Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith" as she watched Emperor Palpatine tell a cheering Senate that he had taken all power away from them to form a Galactic Empire (h/t NBer bradbenj5952).

As the film was released in May 2005 shortly after George W. Bush's second inauguration, there were many in the media who saw a parallel between the events depicted and what was going on in our nation.

A former Wall Street Journal editor asked "Is Bush a Sith Lord?" Years later, Hillary Clinton called Dick Cheney Darth Vader.

Yet, if you watch this scene now, given what transpired during the presidential campaign last year and the cheering masses at Tuesday's inauguration, mightn't this have been a rather prescient foreshadowing of events in the future (video embedded below the fold):

With the massive explosion in government control proposed by the new administration, and people gratefully applauding such, maybe George Lucas was predicting the future rather than commenting about the present.

If so, is Padmé Sarah Palin...or Ann Coulter?

Regardless, a Google search of "Bush is Palpatine" produces 118,000 results. "Cheney is Darth Vader" garners almost 95,000.

What are the odds Obama-loving media members will ever compare him or Vice President Joe Biden to these two movie villains or any such nefarious fictional characters?

Seems highly unlikely, doesn't it?