A simple question never answered...

Rating: Null/10 (24 June 2000)

(possible mild spoiler)
My question is this: What exactly is The Phantom Menace? What character or event does this signify? The title "The Phantom Menace" could be interpreted two ways. One seemingly implies that there would be a proposed threat which turned out to be false or insignificant. The other is that there is indeed a very real threat, only is is unbeknownst, hidden, or veiled. I have only one possible theory as to what this alleged menace could be - Senator (later in Empire and Jedi he'd become Emperor)Palpatine. But this character doesn't seem too significant here, so why name the movie after a secondary character? SW: I has perhaps the strangest title for any major motion picture since A Clockwork Orange (the title of which is never, ever explained or even mentioned in that movie).
WILL SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT IN THE WORLD THIS MEANS?