hhmmm, ok then. It would appear that palpatine's manipulations stretch into the real world as well.
Separatists = dooku
dooku = sith
now tell me, why would the separatists ( dooku ) want to break away from a republic ruled by the master sith lord??
waiting....
ok then i will tell you. THEY DONT!!! or at least the leadership of the separatists dont.
they mearly want to scare a few senators into panic mode. remember that the republic is in turmoil, very true.
One little thing could go wrong for the sith and end their plans, very true. but remember ' your over confidence is your weakness' it wont stop them from trying to be as manipulative as they can, how else can you take over a galaxy.
And you are right, palpatine was voted in to be a strong ruler, but where in TPM do we see this in action, you cant remove bureaucrats unless you are given the mandate to do it. it is only in AOTC once he is given emergency powers that he is allowed to break free from the bonds of the senate and start to rule rather than govern.
As for the clones and the grand army - they are one in the same.
Ah the yoda quote, there is more to it than just 'begun the clone war has' there is also this part:
Spoiler:
Mace: A victory but at what cost? Yoda: Victory you say - it was a defeat.The defeat is the republics democracy as well as the many dead jedi, though they won a single battle they totally lost the point of the battle because the clones are there to stay and they are following the orders of someone who is not to happy with the jedi.
sorry for the length. it is hard to reason in Haiku. 馃檪 馃檪
P.S. - the phantom menace was not a person, it was a plan.