Obama is probably an INFP
I've been studying our President-to-be Barack Obama, and although I often avoid trying to type people I haven't met, he seems to have very clear INFP preferences. I just finished reading his first book, Dreams From My Father, and it seems like a classic INFP journey for inner harmony and emotional integration (a very good read too, BTW).
On March 18 he gave a 37 minute speech on race and religion in the US (timed in response to the controversy over the snippets of his Pastor) that also seems to me to show his INFP preferences. He connected the experiences of a wide range of people, and finds the harmony in what they have in common with the potential of the US to be better than it has been before. To, in his words, "perfect our union."
You can see the introverted Feeling (Fi) process working in his vision of an improving USA (albeit one that will never quite live up to the standards of his inner ideal standards).
INFPs generally dislike conflict and are good at introjecting the experiences/feelings of others, and his diverse racial/cultural background has given him plenty of experience forging links between peoples who often do not get along well.
INFPs can also be fuzzy with details. But I don't think the problem with politics has ever been that it is insufficiently detail-oriented. I think it is time for a visionary leader. His underlings can handle the details. But perhaps that demonstrates the bias of my ENTP preferences.
What do you all think?
It may be that one of the best things you can do to help Obama get elected is to support Project Vote (which he worked for back in '92).
"Project Vote is engaged in a 2008 Voter Participation Program of historic proportions. Designed to address the disproportionately low rates of participation among low- and moderate-income people, African-Americans and Latinos, and young people, the program aims to help a record-setting 1.2 million people from those underrepresented groups register to vote. "
www.projectvote.org/donate
On March 18 he gave a 37 minute speech on race and religion in the US (timed in response to the controversy over the snippets of his Pastor) that also seems to me to show his INFP preferences. He connected the experiences of a wide range of people, and finds the harmony in what they have in common with the potential of the US to be better than it has been before. To, in his words, "perfect our union."
You can see the introverted Feeling (Fi) process working in his vision of an improving USA (albeit one that will never quite live up to the standards of his inner ideal standards).
INFPs generally dislike conflict and are good at introjecting the experiences/feelings of others, and his diverse racial/cultural background has given him plenty of experience forging links between peoples who often do not get along well.
INFPs can also be fuzzy with details. But I don't think the problem with politics has ever been that it is insufficiently detail-oriented. I think it is time for a visionary leader. His underlings can handle the details. But perhaps that demonstrates the bias of my ENTP preferences.
What do you all think?
It may be that one of the best things you can do to help Obama get elected is to support Project Vote (which he worked for back in '92).
"Project Vote is engaged in a 2008 Voter Participation Program of historic proportions. Designed to address the disproportionately low rates of participation among low- and moderate-income people, African-Americans and Latinos, and young people, the program aims to help a record-setting 1.2 million people from those underrepresented groups register to vote. "
www.projectvote.org/donate