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.

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 the national campaign.

Stump speeches are not meant to generate news, outside of local media covering a candidate's appearance. National media usually ignore their contents in their daily news coverage. The predictability of stump speeches gives reporters a general indication that the candidate will soon conclude their speech. An example of this comes from Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, who would constantly use the phrase "the brotherhood of man, under the fatherhood of God" toward the end of his speeches during his multiple bids for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Reporters covering Rockefeller came to abbreviate the expression as BOMFOG.

An example is provided by the Washington Post on a 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama speech, complete with time line, segmentation and videos. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/02/26/GR2008022600417.html.

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