Obama actually said,
“... it is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in fifty .... seven states? I think one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not justify it.”
So he thought he had visited maybe 57 states and had one left to go. Per the quote his staff did not let him visit Alaska or Hawaii, so 57 plus 2 = 59 with yet one more state to visit, maybe.
The underlying point being he didn’t have a clue, 56, 57, 59, or 60, at this point in time what difference does it make.
Or as Gunther Toody would say, “ Ooh, ooh!”
I remember he had no idea how many states in the United States. The slip I referred to was when he mentioned 57 states - because there are 57 islamic states. I think it was a Freudian slip.