A Top Performer in politics must learn to Juice the Jam. In the book Top Performer, a language of energy is introduced. One element of this language is Juice the Jam. A Jam is when something significant happens and catches you by surprise. A tearful response to a question, falsely identifying a terrorist group or perhaps even the comments of your pastor. These are Jams.
Jams force a politician to leave the well rehearsed message and enter into an unscripted territory. The defining moments of a campaign are the Jams.
The question isn't whether there will be Jams. There will be. The question is how to get the energy of a Jam working for you rather than against you. You have to find the juice in the jam at a time when your instincts want the jam to go away. It does no good to resist a jam, it has already happened, yet that is the most common response. And resisting a jam simply makes things worse.
Barak Obama was presented with an enormous jam when video clips of his pastor preaching became front page news because of some rather radical statements. Barak had a choice of resisting the jam or juicing it. He took a middle ground.
The question raised was how he could belong to a church where the pastor made such incendiary remarks. A possible response was what I call "the boiled frog" response. Something like this, "I guess over the years I simply turned off when extreme comments were made, simply attributing them to the part of the man that had a different experience than mine. Seeing those comments, some of which I heard and some of which I did not, strung together as video clips was shocking to me. While I love my pastor for the good he has done I must disavow everything presented in those tapes. I love my country and I do not believe any of the radical remarks made. I am sorry. You see, even presidential candidates can make mistakes." That is one way to juice a jam. Take it as an opportunity to convey your humanity while reinforcing your views.
Another way to juice a political jam is to use it as a teaching opportunity. Barack did that in his speech responding to the tapes of Rev. Wright. He eloquently and fearlessly spoke about race. Unfortunately much of what he said was lost because in the same talk he resisted, tried to explain away, the jam.
The jams in a campaign will tell you a great deal about the candidate. The successful candidate in a close race will be the one that best Juices the Jams.