Reporting on Sarah Palin's response to Politifact naming her claim that Democratic health care bills contain a “death panel” the 2009 “Lie of the Year,” Politico's Ben Smith suggests that it's possible that this has all been a big misunderstanding:

She was talking about, she now says, the Medicare Advisory Board, in combination with forecasted declines in Medicare spending:

[...]

In the haze of confusion over this issue, some of Palin's defenders had equated her words with a measure, since dropped, to provide of end-of-life counseling.

Contrary to Smith's suggestion, back in September, when asked what Palin was referring to when she said that under reform, “Obama's 'death panel' ” would “decide” whether her parents or her son Trig, who has Down syndrome, were “worthy of health care,” Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton responded in an email to ABC's Jake Tapper: “From HR3200 p. 425 see 'Advance Care Planning Consultation'.”

That is, of course, the very provision serial health care misinformer Betsy McCaughey had referred to in claiming that the House health care reform bill would “absolutely require” end-of-life counseling for seniors “that will tell them how to end their life sooner.” The media subsequently debunked McCaughey and Palin's claims more than 40 times.

Either Palin's own spokesperson was caught up in that same “haze of confusion”... or Palin is cynically changing her definitions in an attempt to preserve her credibility.

Oh, and the Medicare Advisory Board isn't a “death panel” either.

UPDATE: Smith responds, calling my argument “pretty convincing.”