The majority opinion seems to be that Obama is some sort of ENF. So why have we typed him as ENTP? ENFs seek to soothe, while ENTPs play the Devil's Advocate and try to stir things up, right?

Certainly, if we look at Obama's campaign platform and his message of "Hope" and "A More Perfect Union" these messages are clearly in accordance with an ENF mindset. But that does not mean that the man himself has ENF-preferences. In fact, looking beyond the surface, Obama has some classical ENTP traits, like an elitist, biting humour and an uncompromizing disagreeableness in private negotiations. And though he has written two biographical books, central areas of his life (for example, how he came to attend Harvard are still shrouded in secrecy) - Obama, then, is exactly the kind of man who "wears one face in public and another in private".

To gain some orientation we could ask ourselves: Does Obama introvert Feeling (Fi) or extrovert Feeling (Fe)?

Introverted Feeling (Fi) is subjective and ego-based: It flows from the inner world of the subject's psyche and is largely independent of the external situation. As such, Fi can seem child-like, self-indulgent, awkward and inappropriate. But to make up for all of this, Fi is sincere.

Extroverted Feeling (Fe) is objective and feeds off the external situation. Fe infuses the subject with the mood of any given situation, enabling the subject to articulate just the right words and sentiments in a given situation, just what people want to hear. The price to pay, however, is that as Fe if fed off the external situation (rather than off the subject's inner psyche), Fe can be shallow, vague, vapied and insincere. "A means to an end."

Barack Obama is clearly an person who extroverts Feeling.

Introverted Feeling (Fi) appears in ENFPs.

Extroverted Feeling (Fe) appears in both ENFJs and ENTPs.

So Obama is eigther an ENFJ or an ENTP.

Which means we should ask ourselves: Is Obama primarily an externally-observing pattern-recognizer (Ne) or a