If McCain Wins, Sarandon Threatens (Promises!?) to Leave U.S.

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Catching up with a quote from a British newspaper interview published May 24 that got some play in the U.S. late last week, actress Susan Sarandon told John Hiscock of London's Telegraph she'll consider moving to Italy or Canada if John McCain wins over Barack Obama. In an interview to promote the British release of the Speed Racer movie and the DVD release of her anti-Iraq war film, In the Kingdom of Elah, Sarandon fumed:

If McCain gets in, it's going to be very, very dangerous....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.

Friday night, however, FNC's Bret Baier noted in the “Grapevine” segment on Special Report with Brit Hume, that “celebrities in the past do not have a stellar track record of making good on threats to flee if their candidate loses.”

Baier recalled how “numerous stars vowed to pack up if George W. Bush won the 2000 election, including Barbara Streisand, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and even Sarandon's long-time boyfriend Tim Robbins,” but “all still currently reside here in the U.S.”

We can always hold up hope Sarandon will break the trend.

(Even if McCain wins, she might not accept the result. Three days after the 2004 election, Sarandon argued Bush only won thanks to "voter fraud." More below.)

Responding to complaints that as a feminist she should back Hillary Clinton, Sarandon declared: “I wouldn't vote for Condoleezza Rice and I hated Margaret Thatcher.” She told the British newspaper:

I've got a lot of flak from feminists who feel that I should be supporting Hillary Clinton, but I thought the whole point of feminism is that you're not supposed to be defined by gender....I don't understand the reasoning behind that, because I wouldn't vote for Condoleezza Rice and I hated Margaret Thatcher.

An excerpt from the May 24 Telegraph article, “On a roller-coaster with Susan Sarandon: The actress and political activist takes John Hiscock on a tour through her film career -- and her forthright opinions,” in which she takes on the Pope:

....Talking with Susan Sarandon is like an exhilarating roller-coaster ride through a variety of topics, all of which elicit candid responses so rare in celebrities who are usually so cautious about causing controversy. We meet in New York on the day the Pope is due to arrive in the US, which inevitably draws strong opinions from the five-times Oscar-nominated actress.

Raised a Catholic, she won an Oscar for portraying Sister Helen Prejean in Robbins's Dead Man Walking, but she has very little time for the Church or its spiritual leader.

"This particular Pope is not one of my favourites," she says.

"I am pretty suspicious of him and my only message to him is that he should become more compassionate and more involved in what the world needs now instead of his archaic kind of outdated, misogynist infrastructure the Church has going now."...

Always busy, Sarandon is about to start work on the romantic period drama The Colossus, but with the presidential election campaign being heatedly contested, she also has bigger things to consider.

"If McCain gets in, it's going to be very, very dangerous," she says.

"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."

Tim Graham's February 14 NewsBusters post: “Sarandon: Obama's Like A Pregnant Woman at an Abortion Rally”

Graham's September 14 NB item: “Susan Sarandon Wallops the War in Washington Post, ABC's The View”

The Monday, November 8, 2004 MRC CyberAlert, “Al Franken and Susan Sarandon Having Trouble Accepting Bush Win?”, recounted how she managed to make Bill Maher look rational and reasonable:

....Bush won thanks to "voter fraud," actress Susan Sarandon contended to HBO's Bill Maher. When Maher maintained that Kerry "lost, by a lot," Sarandon countered: "Wait a minute. You better tune in to some of the other channels." She cited "this black box thing," a mis-reported vote total in one Ohio town, "and the hanging chads and the provisional votes -- this was not the way the voting's supposed to work." Quite serious, she reported that "Ralph Nader's very close to filing something about what went on in New Hampshire." Plus, "lots and lots of problems in Florida. And in New Mexico. It's all coming in now."...

Susan Sarandon appeared via satellite from New York City on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher which aired live at 11pm EST on Friday night [November 5, 2004].

Sarandon argued: "We should deal with voter fraud. I was so naive -- all this stuff about the provisional voting? You know, I thought that stuff was really going to count and they were challenging all these people and just, you know, they're never going to even look at them. I mean, they've got this system in Ohio with the-"

Maher: "C'mon. He lost, by a lot. He lost by over-"

Sarandon: "Wait a minute. You better tune in to some of the other channels. They're finding all kinds of -- one area of Ohio 628 people registered to vote, Bush got 4,000 votes. There's a lot of irregularities. He did lose and he's not going to win but I'm saying this black box thing and the hanging chads and the provisional votes -- this was not the way the voting's supposed to work."

Maher: "But this is not 2000 when the Democrats weren't prepared for it. They had an army of lawyers in that state. You're telling me that army of lawyers didn't keep it square and fair?"

Sarandon: "I sure am. And in New Hampshire too and your guy Ralph Nader's very close to filing something about what went on in New Hampshire....And in Florida. Lots and lots of problems in Florida. And in New Mexico. It's all coming in now."

It is true that there was a mis-reported vote total in one precinct, but hardly a major event. And memo to Sarandon: Kerry won New Hampshire and no re-count will turn Nader's one percent into 50 percent.