President Barack Obama (D), along with his staff and media enablers, laughed when Sarah Palin condemned the death panels embedded in Obamacare. "She's so silly, there is no such thing as death panels," they piously giggled. Well they're not laughing anymore; the officially non existent death panels, which really did exist--thank you Sarah Palin--have been uhm...terminated just a few days after Obamacare, with the aforementioned death panels, kicked in, reports Robert Pear of the New York Times.

The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday.

The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1.

Many doctors and providers of hospice care had praised the regulation, which listed "advance care planning" as one of the services that could be offered in the "annual wellness visit" for Medicare beneficiaries.

And just why did the Obama administration so quickly drop the death panels, er end of life planning service as part of a wellness visit?

While administration officials cited procedural reasons for changing the rule, it was clear that political concerns were also a factor.

Once again, thank you Sarah Palin.

The renewed debate over advance care planning threatened to become a distraction to administration officials who were gearing up to defend the health law against attack by the new Republican majority in the House.

Distractions, distractions.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, "a death panel by any other name, say end of life planning, is still a death panel."

To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, "a death panel is a death panel is a death panel."

To quote Sarah Palin, "death panel."

Be alert: Obamacare might resurrect death panels with still yet another euphemism.