Stump speech (politics) Stump speech (politics) A political stump speech is a standard speech used by a politician running for office. Typically a candidate who schedules many appearances prepares a short standardized stump speech that is repeated verbatim to each audience, before opening to questions. The term derives from the early American custom in which candidates campaigned from town to town and stood upon a sawed off tree stump to deliver their speech. In presidential campaigns in the United States, a candidate's speech at his or her party's presidential nominating convention usually forms the basis for the stump speech for the duration of
A More Perfect Union (speech) systematic, organizational commitment to making this happen, with churches, synagogues and mosques working out a plan for continued dialogue." Later in the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama cited his crafting of this speech as an example of a "gut decision". Speaking to journalist Joe Klein in October 2008, Obama said that he decided to make his response to Wright's comments "big as opposed to make it small", and added: One of the crucial questions after Obama's speech was what effect (if any) the speech would have on voters in terms of their overall opinion of Obama and their willingness to vote