Tensions were already high at town-hall meetings across the country when Sarah Palin stirred the health care–reform pot via her Facebook account. Her Aug. 7, 2009 (1:26 p.m.) post proclaimed:
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy. Such a system is downright evil."
Palin was apparently referring to a House bill provision that called for Medicare to reimburse patients for counseling with doctors on end-of-life issues, such as living wills. "Death panels" went viral ... even though they didn't exist.