I’ve seen the full quote before I made my previous conclusion, so I don’t see a reason to change it.

It is of course all too clear that Obama is defending the vaccinations, not criticizing them (and of course he’s not pandering to anti-vaxxers, as I immediately pointed out). All of this was clear from the start. That’s not the point.

He still very clearly links further research on the causes of autism with the importance of vaccines (and the importance of not junking the system), obviously hoping that it would show no link, whereas it was already known that there is simply no link between the two. One wouldn’t have to perform further research on the causes of autism to defend the vaccines. Such research is important, but all the reasons for its importance have nothing to do with vaccines. It was already known that vaccines don’t have any relation to autism, period. That’s the (minor) goof that I pointed out. Obama indicated uncertainty where there was none (in practical terms, not philosophically).

Yes, it’s not significant, and yes, it was an unprepared offhand remark. And yes, it’s dishonest of the media to run with it in their usual MBF style. And of course, Obama’s actions speak louder than words. All of this doesn’t change the fact that Obama made a (small) mistake in this instance, for whatever reason. And it’s fair to point out that yes, it was a mistake.