Sarah Palin’s post that President Barack Obama’s health care plan includes “death panels” tops a Newsweek roundup of the top gaffes committed by politicians on Twitter in 2009. Palin was quickly forced to back away from her original Twitter post on the subject after critics pointed out that the “death panels” did not exist.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed Palin on the list, after a video he posted featuring him wielding a giant knife to emphasize the budget cuts he felt were needed to balance the state’s budget got him into hot water. Schwarzenegger was later forced to defend himself at a press conference.
It wasn’t just Republicans who made Twitter gaffes this year. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill accidentally let on that fellow Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado was having lunch with top Washington reporters at the same time he had told a Denver radio host that he was “too busy” for an interview.