Darth Vader 2016? Star Wars Villian Outpolling Hillary Clinton
Darth Vader might just be the dark horse of the 2016 presidential election.
A recent poll of Americans’ opinions on the Star Wars universe found that despite serving as the foil for Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader still great favorability numbers. The poll found that 58 percent of respondents viewed the Dark Lord as favorable, and another 10 percent were neutral.
Amazingly, only 38 percent of people viewed Darth Vader unfavorably, despite the fact that the entire series is set up with him as the bad guy.
But pitted against the likely 2016 presidential hopefuls, Darth Vader looks pretty good. Even the frontrunner among likely candidates, Hillary Clinton, has only a 19 percent favorable rating — making her tied with Boba Fett, who captured and froze Han Solo.
As Washington Post political correspondent Christopher Ingraham noted, Darth Vader might actually have a chance if he were to materialize from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away:
You’ll recall that Vader chopped off his son’s arm and blew up an entire planet, but evidently in the eyes of the American public these are minor sins compared to Benghazi, Bridgegate and Gov. Rick Perry’s hipster glasses. These numbers suggest that if “Star Wars” were real and Darth Vader decided to enter the 2016 presidential race, he’d be the immediate front-runner.
If he were to make an unlikely entry into the 2016 presidential race, Darth Vader might have some good name recognition going. After Disney purchased LucasFilm and the rights to the Star Wars series, the studio vowed to bring a slew of new movies over the next few years.
Vader might have some competition if the election were entirely within the Star Wars universe. The hero of the story, Luke Skywalker, had an incredible 93 percent favorability rating. Somehow, there were still 2 percent of respondents who viewed him unfavorably.
Darth Vader wasn’t the only one making headlines in the poll. President Obama polled two points below the Sith Lord Emperor Palpatine.
