Word: stumps
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that same tirade about bib overalls that is bouncing around Bill Maher’s head at this very moment, I caught myself. Someone has to have first look at this slippery field of candidates, to be the testing ground and focus group to their gladhanding and hyper-scripted stump speeches. Meanwhile, so many of our states lack the economic or cultural grandeur of California or New York and become little more than whistle-stops in the general election. This is, of course, the problem to which the Electoral College is the hapless, nonsensical solution. Better that the self-styled...
...Those gathered treated the former Massachusetts governor with respect and somewhat distracted enthusiasm. Romney marched through each event with studied conviviality. After an abbreviated stump speech, he would walk gingerly through the crowd, stopping to comment when someone was decked out in conspicuous sports gear. In Johnston, he patted the shoulder of a man in a University of Missouri jersey and asked, "Oh, are you a 'grad'? I mean, a graduate...
...their minds - the tarmac rallies Romney held on Wednesday were downright raucous. Crowds only numbered between 50 to 100, not much larger than a house party, but they were enthusiastic. There were whistles, screams and signs whose wordy perfectionism - one lists all seven of the planks of Romney's stump speech - contrast sharply with the brightly-colored faux folkiness of the signs distributed by volunteers. These are people who have fallen for the guy they entered into an arranged marriage with. "I love him! I love him! I love him!" shouts a former teacher in Cedar Rapids...
...very few weeks, Huckabee overcame steep odds with an unusual combination of down-home charm, a ready sense of humor and a fervent faith borne of his roots as a Baptist preacher. He surprised the Republican field with his ease on the stump and took several unorthodox positions on the Iraq war, on taxes and on immigration. In a field that wasn't high on personality, Huckabee was likeable. Noted McCain adviser Mark McKinnon: "Any time I hear two campaigns arguing on Election Day between passion and organization, passion always wins...
...ethereal performance in Newton, I drove to Indianola, where Huckabee was holding a clown-car event, trying to stuff hundreds of supporters and dozens of camera crews into an upstairs room meant to hold about 20. Huckabee had lost control of his Christian calm and spent most of his stump speech railing against Romney. This was pretty shocking for a primary, where attacks tend to be muffled because the losers eventually support the winner. Huckabee was particularly miffed by Romney's ad about the pardons. He told the crowd the story of one pardon - an Iraq-war vet who came...