Greg Sargent for whorunsgov.com: The Secret Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding an eye-opening Facebook poll that asked whether Obama should be assassinated, a Secret Service spokesman confirms to us.

"We are taking the appropriate investigative steps," the spokesman, Ed Donovan, told our reporter, Amanda Erickson. "We are aware of it."

The poll asked: "Should Obama be killed?" It offered four choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.

The poll, of course, is only the latest example of the sort of viral incitement to violence that flares up when the sparks of anti-Obama hatred are fed oxygen by the bellows of the Internets. While anyone can put up such a poll, this kind of stuff is a sign of the moment -- as David Kurtz put it, it's akin to graffiti on the virtual wall of our times.

According to a source, the Secret Service has contacted Facebook and asked them to take the poll down. And, indeed, it's already down.

Given that the Secret Service is investigating the circumstances of the poll, it seems clear that they're looking into who was behind it. More if we learn it.

Update: A lot of folks are Twittering at me that this blogger broke the poll story.

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