Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Via Radley Balko, here's an amusing tidbit about Pat Robertson, God's own personal carnival barker, from his own CBN webpage:
Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it?Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?
One of Pat's secrets to keeping his energy high and his vitality soaring is his age-defying protein shake. Pat developed a delicious, refreshing shake, filled with energy-producing nutrients.
And if you believe that, I've got a hurricane to send your way. They don't even make machines that have 2000 pounds available for a leg press, much less for a 76 year old man, for crying out loud. A writer at CBS Sportsline points out that the record for Florida State University's athletics department for a leg press is 665 pounds - and the guy who did that had the capillaries in his eyes burst from the strain of the attempt. If Pat can leg press 2000 pounds, I'll not only buy his shakes I'll convert.
Comments
Actually the record was 1335 pounds. Robertson is claiming 665 pounds more than the Florida state record
Posted by: Jeff
| May 23, 2006 3:00 PM
Ed writes:
Correction...he meant to say that Pat's 2000 pound press was 665 pounds more than the Florida athlete, who pressed 1335 pounds.
Pat must mean 200 pounds, 10 times. Unless he's pressing with his mouth, not his legs.
Posted by: Dave S.
| May 23, 2006 3:04 PM
You're forgetting miracles. Or maybe lies.
Posted by: Mark Paris
| May 23, 2006 3:06 PM
Oh, come on. He can totally press 2000 lbs. Just not in one year.
Posted by: pough
| May 23, 2006 3:06 PM
It's easy, Ed! First, call on the Lord to send a hurricane to smite the citizens of Dover for turning their back on Intelligent Design. Then do your leg press there in the town square where the heavenly winds of justice will do most of the lifting for you. Simple! But then, it always is where Pat Robertson's God is concerned.
Posted by: Jeff Hebert
| May 23, 2006 3:09 PM
People, people. These are Biblical pounds.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp
| May 23, 2006 3:37 PM
With a little help from some cams, levers and gears, I'm sure I could press a couple tons.
Posted by: ompus
| May 23, 2006 4:02 PM
Oh ye of little faith! Next thing you'll be telling us that Chairman Mao didn't really swim across the Yangtze River at age eighty-something.
Is nothing sacred to you, Ed?
Posted by: flatlander100
| May 23, 2006 4:04 PM
"People, people. These are Biblical pounds."
Yep. Kind of like killing 500 gazzillion Philistines with the jaw of a donkey. Just think of what Sampso.....uh, I mean Pat could do if he let his hair grow out a bit. Watch out, Hugo Chavez.
Posted by: paleotn
| May 23, 2006 4:09 PM
Indeed. In the Evil Atheistic Scientific Metric System, it is equivalent to a microgram.
Posted by: Marcelo Greco
| May 23, 2006 4:26 PM
Or perhaps that was how much cash his walk-a-thon raised in Britain?
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox
| May 23, 2006 4:29 PM
Remember, these Biblically-enthralled people have trouble with measures, especially counting: # of years since creation, # of days required, # years of life for major Biblical characters, # of different animal species at the time of Noah, # of generations since then, etc.
Why should they get weights right?
P.S. Don't eat the poundcake if they've baked it from scratch.
Posted by: Doppler
| May 23, 2006 9:12 PM
... develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?
Forget about the leg presses. What visionary scholars could they be talking about? And a statesman? Pat wants to kill Hugo Chavez, wants God to take Sharon in retribution, and equates all Muslims with terrorists and satanists.
Pat is as smart as he is strong.
Posted by: wheatdogg
| May 23, 2006 10:07 PM
I recently took a week off from work for physical therapy related to chronic pain. During that time, I overhead-pulled a a full-sized SUV off the floor. But it took me a week, 100 lbs at a time... I just like thinking of it that way.
Maybe Pat and I should do some celebrity pro wrestling. Oh wait, I'm not a celebrity.
Posted by: george.w
| May 23, 2006 10:30 PM
Isn't doing a 200 lb. leg press the same as, oh, a 200-odd lb. man doing a deep knee bend, only upside-down? Even so, 10 reps for a man in his 70s is pretty good, I guess.
BTW, Madeleine Albright told the New York Times a few weeks ago that she presses 400.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002383529
Posted by: Grumpy
| May 23, 2006 11:43 PM
Bah, 2000 lbs is nothing.
Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world!
Posted by: KeithB
| May 24, 2006 6:25 PM
Apparently, this is something real (almost). CBN explains it all HERE. Heck, even Pat's doc can do 2700, so 2000 is quite do-able. There's also video of Pat pumping 1000 pounds 10 times.
Those don't look like real leg presses to me.
Posted by: Dave S.
| May 25, 2006 6:25 PM
I can't view the video, but I call bullshit. If Pat Robertson can leg press 2000 pounds, I can jump over the great wall of China.
Posted by: Ed Brayton
| May 25, 2006 6:49 PM
I doubt that Pat could even hold 2000 pounds static without his legs collapsing.
Posted by: ryana | December 3, 2007 7:28 PM