Now that John McCain is the Republican nominee for president, a lot of people are paying far more attention to what he says on the campaign trail.

And although he doesn’t talk much about education, he may have stepped on a landmine when he waded into the controversial area of what causes autism. Specifically, he said there’s “strong evidence” that a preservative in vaccines is causing autism.

What strong evidence?

As my colleague Christina Samuels points out in her blog post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there is no link.

For more on this and other special education issues, read Christina’s special education blog.