Yoda was not fighting Dooku or any other "opponent" he had ever faced.
Yoda was fighting the mightiest opponent (in skill and power) he had ever faced and he knew it.

Yoda (as much as I think the "old-republic" Jedi were lax on several levels) was a True Jedi master and understood what he was facing before he walked into Palpatines office.

Yoda blocked Palps exit and challenged him to a duel (Yoda drew his saber).
Yoda was on the offensive at the begining of the fight. He came at the Sith Lord without fear (brave little S.O.B. if i ever saw one)!

I think SnoopDarthyDarth say's it all in his comment.
Interesting blog though! I never noticed that thing with Yoda's saber before.

Sidious blocked what was thrown... threw his own... the duel turned epic...
Yoda continued his confounding (and awesome) moves to which Sid held his ground and the two quickly found themselves at a stalemate so Sid resorted to.....

...Force strength (where he was sure he was stronger)...
Yoda (to Palps credit) fumbled momentarily.
Yoda dodged and evaded Palps (senate pod) attaks (barely) and scraped his way up to the emperors own platform where his saber was immediatly dislodged from his hand via Sids lightning (a tribute to Sids strength in the dark side) and the two engaged in an electrical contest of will!!!

It became a stalemate (Sids scared look only showed his fear that he was on an equal plain... not that he was over-matched.)

Both duelists gave thier all and they negated eachothers attack and both were thrown back!

Of course Yoda was thrown much ####her then Sids...

Sids got launched back 10 feet or so and grabbed hold of the railing...
Yoda got launched off the platform and on to a far off ledge and couldnt catch the railing and fell to his defeat.

Bottom line... Yoda drew his saber when he (seemingly)didnt need to because he was on constant guard against the stronger Sith opponent.

At that point Sidious had won... we may not have knew it but he had.

Sid (during the resulting canceling-out of power) was pushed back and grabbed hold of the rail...

... Yoda was thrown back away and ultimatly fell to the (far below) ground.
When Yoda rose to his feet he already knew the fight was over.
He could have jumped back up and continued but he knew (in his heart) that he couldnt beat Sids in combat.
Yoda was (extremely) wise enough to see that the lights best chance for victory lay not in him, but in a future pupil (Luke).

That definately makes since.. Thanks, SnoopDarthy Darth!

Thing is, Sidious was a master manipulator of the Force. My theory is that Sidious's uncanny ability to make Jedi less receptive to the Force included sending false signals to Yoda, so eventually in the battle he decided to keep his saber at the ready every moment he could, incase he was wrong in thinking that Sidious was sending more platforms rather than jumping down and attacking.

Yoda wanted to fight fair and square - one swordsman against another - that's why he keeps igniting his 'saber, but Palpatine just stays back and chucks pods at him. He's a coward.

That's Yoda problem and weakness.

Sidious used the dark side, his lightning is much more agressive
compare to the neutral or light side Force power of Yoda.

So by comparison, Yoda's swordmanship is the only thing the Jedi Master has which top Sidious. (The Illustrated Screenplay and ROTS Young Reader stated that Yoda disarmed Sidious during the time Vader choke Obi-Wan on Mustafar)

Yoda, like the Jedi Order, fail to adapt / too slow to adapt when Sidious changed
the game from an elegant blade duel into a Throw-everything-out-or-die match.

Yoda depends on his blade too much.

Yoda actually rarly uses his blade

So what if Palps jumped down right after hurling a pod, at Yoda, with his saber switched on? Yoda would've been prepared by having his turned on. I think he was keepin all options open.

The best way to deflect lightning? How 'bout lightsaber. Obi-wan does it to Dooku and forces him to draw his saber. Mace does it to the Emperor which burns/scars him and places Mace in a position of power. Yoda likely keeps his blade lit in case Palps pulls some lightning action on him (as he did in the office). Once he sees mounds of pods comin' at him he changes his stance and slams it back to Palps.

And since the battle was a salemate, Palps would be declared the victor by default---hence Yoda feeling like a "failure." That is because Yoda went there to defeat him. On the offensive he was---which was stated earlier.

1. Obi-Wan did not deflect lightning, he merely grounded it.

2. Mace could deflect it back to Sidious only because of Vaapad.

3. Yoda's blade was blasted out from his palm when Sidious unleashed
his powerful lightning. And, it seemed that Yoda deflect Sith Lightning
better by mere palms

4. Well... Sidious had the high ground and was on the upper hand
plus being the currently offensive one. If Yoda assumed Sidious would
halt his assault and abandon the high ground advantage to jump
down right in front of an armed enemy --- it seems a very unlikely thing Sidious would do.

sidious lookes like a total idiot wen he fights did u notice his facial expressions they were that of a 8 year old playing swordfight with a friend
and also of all the jumping that sidious did his hood never fell i found this to be very disturbing







may the force be with u