A political stump speech is a standard speech used by a politician running for office. The term derives from the custom in 19th century America for political candidates campaigning from town to town to stand upon a sawed off tree stump to deliver a standard speech. Because the busy pace of campaigning often forces candidates to address people several times per week or even per day, the candidate and his or her staff will usually write a single speech to be delivered at most public appearances. The beginning of the speech is usually tweaked to include mentions of local elected officials and campaign staff, with local references sometimes peppered throughout, but most of the speech remains identical from day to day.
The need for a stump speech stems from a desire to keep candidates on message and consistently make certain arguments or point out certain aspects of their political platform.
Candidates will often use major events to unveil a new or substantially revised stump speech.
In presidential campaigns in the U.S., 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 allows reporters to generally know when a candidate is preparing to wrap up. A famous 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 the recent presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech, complete with time line, segmentation and videos. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/02/26/GR2008022600417.html.