Barack Obama is pitching the line that the scandals engulfing his administration are "phony" and is blaming the Republicans for preventing economic progress by seeking to uncover the truth about Benghazi, the IRS and other matters. In very long, very stale speech kicking off his latest campaign rally-like tour in Galesburg, Illinois, he said: (White House transcript)

"But with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball.  And I am here to say this needs to stop.  (Applause.)  This needs to stop."

This contradicts his earlier promises to get to the bottom of the IRS scandal, but the president has moved into the realm of postmodernism where truth is optional, and all that matters is a narrative. His narrative is now set, and we can expect future speeches to mock the Republicans with the trademark sarcastic condescension that marks his humor when turned on his political enemies.  Going on the offense, attacking the truth-seekers is a classic defense when you have no case.  

And with the low information voters that constitute his base, the strategy can work.  Big media, except for Fox, will ignore whatever the coming hearings uncover, ghettoizing the truth to the conservative media. The lo-fo crowd depending on the media that take their signals from the New York Times will never know.

The rest of the speech was recycled campaign material, stretched out to nearly Castro-like length. I can no longer force myself to listen to him at such length, but Nile Gardiner did, and he judged it a "train wreck."

[Yesterday's] speech at Knox College, Illinois, was supposed to be the president's come-back moment, the first of a series of addresses aimed at retaking the initiative by the White House. Instead it was a train-wreck. In an hour-long address, which seemed to last forever (and par for course started 15 minutes late), the president spoke in deeply partisan terms, often with bitterness and anger, lambasting his political opponents, dismissing criticism of his policies, and launching into his favourite theme of class warfare, attacking the wealthy and what he calls the "winner takes all economy."

Even liberal pundits like Dana Milbank were dismayed at the "warmed-over jobs message."

...even a reincarnated Steve Jobs would have trouble marketing this turkey: How can the president make news, and remake the agenda, by delivering the same message he gave in 2005? He's even giving the speech from the same place, Galesburg, Ill.

The phrase more cowbell comes to mind.

There are no more ideas for Obama, only more of the old ones. He has only his base, and he has to lie to them. The Obama presidency goes lower and lower.