Both Obama and Clinton had interesting comments on the purported link between vaccines and autism in 2008 in Morden's HP link:
My guess is that Lancet's 2011
retraction of Wakefield's study has had a marked effect on the public debate on this subject. The Wakefield study was the last shred of evidence that allowed any credible public figure to claim that the relevant science was, as Obama put it at the time, "inconclusive."
At this point, pandering is the only rationale for playing up a "balanced" approach to vaccinations. Whether the issue persists (like the denial of anthropogenic global warming) or only clings to life as a fringe conspiracy theory (like opposition to water fluoridation) depends on the size and influence of the anti-vax crowd.