The conservative talk radio show might permanently become El Rushbo, if the Democrats pass health care reform. Limbaugh told his audience Tuesday, "I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented—I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica." This week’s would-be expat left himself some wiggle room. He was responding to a question from a caller who asked, “If the health care bill passes, where would go for health care yourself?” So maybe Limbaugh will just be checking into San Jose for doctor’s visits and not for life.
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Whew. That was close. America almost lost power couple Heidi Klum and Seal. The singer told Vanity Fair that before the 2008 election that if Obama lost, they’d take their beautiful selves elsewhere. “If McCain is elected and America staggers on further towards the abyss, then we will leave the country. That is not a problem for us,” Seal said Good thing Obama pulled out a win.
Kevork Djansezian / AP Photo
One of Hollywood’s most outspoken liberal activists, Susan Sarandon told The Telegraph of London in May 2008 that if John McCain won the presidency, she’d be grabbing her passport. "If McCain gets in, it's going to be very, very dangerous," the Thelma and Louise star told the British paper. "It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people. If they prove me wrong, I'll be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don't know. We're at an abyss." Sarandon is still very much with us.
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Alec Baldwin and his then-wife Kim Basinger had announced they would depart America if George W. Bush won the 2000—but quickly found themselves walking their traveling plans back. As recounted by Salon’s Carina Chocano in January 2001, Basinger told a German magazine that Baldwin “might leave the country if Bush is elected president,” adding that she would probably tag along. Later Baldwin said his wife had never spoken to the magazine. Later still, Baldwin said his wife did speak to the magazine but didn’t say the couple would quit the U.S. of A. “My wife and I never said unequivocally that we would leave the country if Bush won. Never,” Baldwin said. Bush won, they stayed—the only parting being the one between the couple.
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Not to be outdone by big brother Alec, Stephen Baldwin promised to vamoose if Barack Obama were elected. The actor and conservative activist told Fox News: "What is freaky to me is the media and Hollywood is so convinced that Middle America and mainstream America cares what it thinks.” But Baldwin endured, despite Obama’s win. He was last seen trying to raise the roof with young conservatives at last month’s CPAC conference. “I know you don’t hear the word gnarly too much in conservative circles, but you’re gonna start hearing it in the future!” Baldwin said.
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The Pearl Jam frontman who used to tour the country impaling a George Bush mask with his microphone stand had said he’d leave the U.S. for friendlier climes if Dubya won the presidency. He told U.S.A. Today in August 2000: "With three Supreme Court positions opening in the next administration, I'm frightened to think of a Republican in office, especially one raised by a father who was in the CIA. I'm moving to a different country if little Damien II gets elected." Vedder still lives in Seattle, a quick drive from the Canadian border.
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Another outspoken Hollywood fixture who said she’d leave the U.S. if George W. Bush were elected president, Streisand found herself embracing Bush—even giving him a kiss—at the Kennedy Center honors in December 2008. “Art transcends politics,” she said.
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Critically acclaimed director Robert Altman told one reporter during a visit to France that he’d high-tail it out of the U.S. if George W. Bush won the nation’s vote. “If George Bush is elected president, I’m leaving for France,” Altman said. He later joked that he was referring to Paris, Texas. "Here's what I really said. I said that if Bush gets elected, I'll move to Paris, Texas, because the state will be better off if he's out of it," he told the New York Daily News. Altman died in 2006—still an American citizen.
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The former press secretary for John F. Kennedy was one of the rare folks who threatened to leave the U.S. after a presidential election and kept his word. In 2000, he wrote in a Washington newspaper, “If Bush wins, I’m going to leave the country.” After the election The Washington Post’s Lloyd Grove, now editor-at-large at The Daily Beast, tracked Salinger down in the French town of Le Thor. His fourth wife Nicole was running a bed-and-breakfast there. "I'm going to come back to Washington in January to dispose of my apartment in Georgetown," Salinger told Grove, "but otherwise I'll come back here to live for the rest of my life." (Salinger had a bit of an advantage as he had moved to France in the 1970s to work for ABC News.) In 2004, Salinger died and returned to his final resting place in the U.S., Arlington National Cemetery.
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