Obama group targets Palin on health care

President Obama's grassroots organization is targeting Sarah Palin by name, showing how large a public figure she has become and hinting perhaps that it sees her as a potential rival in 2012.

Organizing for America sent an email to supporters this morning seeking to raise $500,000 to counter Palin's criticisms of Obama's health care plan. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee has drawn huge audiences for her TV appearances on her media blitz accompanying the nationwide tour for her best-selling memoir.

Earlier this fall, she was the one who popularized the contention -- later debunked -- that the Democratic health care bills would create panels of bureaucrats who would decide end-of-life care.

"Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn," national director Mitch Stewart wrote.

"It's dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term "Death Panels" -- and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists. Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform."