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
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun World War II. A portion of the 1938 speech was excerpted and included in Mao's "Selected Works", with the title "Problems of War and Strategy". Finally in 1964, the central phrase was reproduced again and popularized as an early quotation in Mao's "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung". The 1938 paragraph containing the phrase is reproduced below; the central phrase (in bold), cited as deriving from the 1938 speech via the "Selected Works", is that given in Mao's "Quotations". Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun is a