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Spoiler Warning for Sunday New York Times Fans

Brian Doherty | 4.21.2006 12:56 PM

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We will learn this weekend from the paper of record that Madeleine Albright can leg-press 400 pounds.

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Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason and author of Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired (Broadside Books).

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  1. Daze   19 years ago

    400 pounds, big deal.

    http://www.cbn.com/communitypublic/shake.asp

  2. SR   19 years ago

    I’m assuming that’s total for a set. My gym’s legpress machine only goes to 300 lbs and I highly doubt Albright is doing single lifts of 400 lbs on freeweights.

  3. Ed   19 years ago

    She said “up to” 400 pounds.
    And I can get “up to” 15% off my car insurance by switching to Geico.

  4. ralphus   19 years ago

    This story has created a comedic potential overload in my comment thread lobe.

    Too… many… punch… lines….

  5. joe   19 years ago

    Does that mean she can rise fromt a sitting position?

    Bad joe! Bad! Go stand in the corner!

  6. Evan   19 years ago

    If she could squat 400 pounds, then I’d be impressed.

    Oye. Now I have the image of Maddy Albright doing barbell squats. Thanks, NYT.

  7. Evan   19 years ago

    hehehe…Pat Robertson claims to press 2000 pounds? Give me a fucking break. Doesn’t the bible say anything about lying through your dentures?

  8. John   19 years ago

    As an 18 year old high school football player I hit 450 using free weights on a machine. If a woman in her 60s can do 400, that is one tough broad and also way too much information.

  9. Peterson Emerald   19 years ago

    Evan’s right, if by leg press the champagne queen means a hammer leg press or a hip sled, its not very impressive. Many reasonably healthy people could do 400lbs. for one rep.

    I saw a guy in Auburn’s weight room leg press 2,150 lbs. once. That was fucking impressive.

  10. John   19 years ago

    Peterson,

    Now that I think about it, maybe it was 800lbs that was the standard in football, not 400lbs. Your hips and legs have a lot of strength. Even still, that guy who did over a ton must have been on one hell of a beef roid bender.

  11. Steven Crane   19 years ago

    When I was in high school, it was pretty common for me to leg press well over 600lbs for at least five reps.

    Then I got a hernia between my sophomore and junior years (probably a combination of running, lifting weights, and work). No more weight-lifting for me!

  12. Peterson Emerald   19 years ago

    John,

    Exactly, he was an o-lineman in the pros for about 6 years in the 1990’s.

    21 years old and almost completely bald…

  13. b-psycho   19 years ago

    Well she does have a sorta football-playeresque physique for an old woman…

    Speaking of cabinet members past & present & their workout routine: didn’t someone not too long ago post on Google Video a clip of Condi Rice doing some ridiculously strenuous exercize routine?

  14. Not My Real Name   19 years ago

    When I was a kid, I could leap tall buildings with a single bound!

  15. sage +P   19 years ago

    Jack Bauer, is that you?

  16. D.A. Ridgely   19 years ago

    [insert Janet Reno joke here]

  17. friend of chuck   19 years ago

    But what can Chuck Norris press?

  18. Peterson Emerald   19 years ago

    FOC,

    Chuck doesn’t press…the weight automatically defies gravity and levtiates out of respect.

  19. Not Happy   19 years ago

    It has to be the ‘roids. First Barry Bonds… now Maddy Albright…

    My faith in professional sports and international diplomacy is now completely shattered.

  20. Ed   19 years ago

    That would explain her shrunken testicles.

  21. Todd Fletcher   19 years ago

    “Pat Robertson claims to press 2000 pounds?”

    Jesus does the heavy lifting.

  22. Herrick and His Balls   19 years ago

    Would you hit that?

  23. Lemur   19 years ago

    To “leg press” 400 pounds could either be pretty impressive or not impressive at all – it depends on the machine. There’s a nautilus machine at my gym that goes up to 1200 pounds, which I can push pretty easily (more than 10 reps) and I only weigh 155. On the other hand, there are various free-weight sled-type machines were I can only push 350-400 pounds for a single rep.

  24. Dogzilla   19 years ago

    And she can shoot fireballs out of her arse, so?

  25. Stevo Darkly   19 years ago

    I think most women already have pretty strong thighs.

  26. joe   19 years ago

    Is it my imagination, or all all of the high-level American political figures who lived under communism in Eastern Europe Democrats?

    Albright, Zbigniew Brzinski, Tom Lantos…

  27. Isaac Bartram   19 years ago

    Is it my imagination, or all all of the high-level American political figures who lived under communism in Eastern Europe Democrats?

    My impression is that people who have worked predominatly for the government or in academia are more likely to be Democrats.

  28. Ruthless   19 years ago

    For perverts such as moi, the phrase, “her legs extend all the way up to her ass,” usually leads to psychadelic, sexual flights of fancy.
    Not in Madeleine’s case.

    We knew she didn’t have sticks of balsa?

    Here I need to link once again to “Naturist Gymnast Home.”
    Somebody help me.

  29. Ruthless   19 years ago

    Could I threadjack here for a discussion of hernias?
    I had one repaired on the left side (down there), but I’m thinking it just weakened the right side, which is now bulging.

    This conversation is just “among friends,” eh?

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