Mock documentary about an upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate written and directed by actor Tim Robbins. Bob Roberts is a folksinger with a difference: He offers tunes that protest welfare chiselers, liberal whining, and the like. As the filmmakers follow his campaign, Robbins gives needle-sharp insight into the way candidates manipulate the media.

A conservative, Midwestern farmer rallies his neighbors against a power company planning to erect huge towers across their land, and a political activist schoolteacher helps them organize into an effective bloc.