Wiktionary
n. (context politics English) A standard speech by a politician running for office.
WordNet
n. political oratory
Wikipedia
Stump speech may refer to:
- Stump speech (minstrelsy), a comic monologue from blackface minstrelsy
- Stump speech (politics), a standard speech used by a politician running for office
The stump speech was a comic monologue from blackface minstrelsy (which is an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface). A typical stump speech consisted of malapropisms (the substitution of a word for a word with a similar sound), nonsense sentences, and puns delivered in a parodied version of Black Vernacular English. The stump speaker wore blackface makeup and moved about like a clown. Topics varied from pure nonsense to parodies of politics, science, and social issues. Although both the topic itself and the black character's inability to comprehend it served as sources of comedy, minstrels used such speeches to deliver social commentary that might be considered taboo in another setting. The stump speech was an important precursor to modern stand-up comedy.
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.
Usage examples of "stump speech".
When he returned to active practice he saw at once that the courts had grown more learned and dignified and that the bar relied more upon method and system and a knowledge of the statute law than upon the stump speech method of early days.
Your remarks will not leave this room, so I am at a loss as to why you are making a stump speech to Captain Grafton, who, unless I am mistaken, doesn't vote in your district.
I added his impeccable logic to my stump speech for the rest of the campaign.