Hillary Clinton Concedes: Darth Vader Looks Pretty Good

Hillary Clinton conceded that Darth Vader “looks pretty good” given the current political climate in Washington to Fareed Zakaria. Former Secretary Clinton was referring to a Washington Post poll mash-up that shows Darth Vader as more popular than every potential presidential candidate, including herself.

Mrs. Clinton specified though, that Darth Vader would not be her choice as president:

“Darth would not be my choice, but, you know, somebody, perhaps a slightly more positive attitude in his presentation… to come in and just fix it.”

In the poll mash-up, there were plenty more positive fictional Star Wars characters to choose from, including Han Solo, Yoda, and Luke Skywalker, all of whom also polled higher than Hillary Clinton. But it’s not clear that if any of those characters could bring in the iron fist required to clean up Washington. Emperor Palpatine, on the other hand, who is behind Hillary but still beating well-known candidates like Paul Ryan, just might have what it takes.

Some have said that comparing the two unrelated polls has no real meaning, but that didn’t stop Fareed Zakaria from asking what was the deeper meaning behind the poll. To that, Mrs. Clinton had a somewhat poignant answer:

“People get frustrated. And people are just so fed up with the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington. The Congress is just, you know, so, unfortunately, unable to even agree on the most obvious kinds of matters, that I think, you know, Darth Vader looks pretty good to a lot of people.”

Mrs. Clinton referred to that frustration as “the price of democracy.” And began to discussing the recent economic success of China’s top-down system before getting back to the frustration of America’s public.

The original poll mash-up was produced by the Washington Post from a FiveThirtyEight post on Star Wars characters’ popularity, and polls on presidential candidates. Not only does the graph show that Darth Vader is more popular than Hillary Clinton, it shows the Sith Lord as more popular than every single presidential hopeful.

Perhaps the more devastating fact for politicians isn’t the popularity of Darth Vader, but that Jar Jar Binks, the most unpopular Star Wars character, polled higher than Congress and Congressional leaders.

For a full link to the transcript of the Clinton’s interview, including her discussion of Darth Vader, click here.

For the original poll showing Darth Vader on his way to hypothetical political victory, click here.

[Image Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron]