Roseanne For President

The Green Party lost its guaranteed ballot spot in the 2010 election, when gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney failed to get 5 percent of the vote. (Whitney got 10 percent in 2006, mostly from Democrats who could not abide Rod Blagojevich.) But the party is still in existence. It’s holding its 2012 State Convention this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

The convention is important because it will choose delegates to the national convention in Baltimore on July 12-15, which will nominate a presidential candidate. And this year, one of the contenders is the woman who played the most famous fictional Illinoisan of all time: Roseanne Barr.

The TV show Roseanne was set in the blue-collar town on Lanford, Illinois, which was said to be a two-hour drive from Chicago. I had always assumed Lanford was based on Rockford, but according to this thread, in one episode, Roseanne’s husband Dan is seen reading the DeKalb County Observer (not a real newspaper). In another episode, Roseanne’s daughter Darlene states the Connor family lives in Fulton County, which is southwest of Peoria.

So it’s not exactly certain where the Connors live, but it’s certain they’re Illinoisans, and it’s also certain that no TV show ever portrayed the financial uncertainties of the middle class more realistically. No TV show ever portrayed American life more realistically, period, as least for those of us in the Midwest. Roseanne is even more timely in 2012 than it was in the 1990s. Barr also used her working-class persona to promote liberal causes, such as women’s rights and gay marriage. (Martin Mull and Fred Willard played a gay couple who wed on the show.)

Barr will address the convention over Skype. According to her website

On August 4th, 2011, Roseanne Barr announced her candidacy for President of the United States on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, declaring that she would not run as a Democrat or a Republican “because they both suck and they’re both a bunch of criminals.” She has since decided to seek the nomination of the Green Party of the United States.

On Day 1 of #OccupyWallStreet, September 17th, 2011, Roseanne became the first public figure to stand with the occupiers in downtown Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, delivering a speech before the very first General Assembly.

If elected, Roseanne’s presidency will manifest world peace in less than one year!

In the Illinois Greens’ online poll, Barr trailed Jill Stein, a physician from Massachusetts, 71 percent to 18 percent.

Who needs a fictional Illinois when there’s a real one on the ballot? 

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