The following blog will be more casual and less exhaustive/elaborative like some of my other ones but it is still something I think is worth considering:
I agree that Joe Biden is Fe dominant, he values are external and mediated between people, but I won't go too deep into that territory and will mostly focus on the S and N distinction (as well as Si and Ni). For starters, I think his N is too low to be one of his uppermost functions, semi-conscious N makes a lot more sense. As IDRlabs has said in their basic general portrait of ENFJs, “the ENFJ tends to have an intellectual, even scholarly, side which they use to delve into abstract problems concerning the whole of society, if not the world. In truth, most ENFJs are quite comfortable juggling complex facts and challenging situations that require a firm grasp of the theory involved.” This "intellectual" and "abstract" side of the ENFJ is in no small part due to their auxiliary Ni, which is arguably the most abstract function due to its noumenal nature. Anyway back to Joe Biden, there seems to be much more evidence of him *not* being oriented towards the abstract:
Mark Bowden: “Though plenty smart, Biden is not an intellectual. He makes few references to books and learned influences in his speeches and autobiography, and he displays little interest in theory. An indifferent student at the University of Delaware and Syracuse University College of Law—he describes the latter as 'boring'—Biden got by with prodigious cramming sessions. Today, by contrast, he is described by Tony Blinken, Biden’s national-security adviser, as a compulsive studier who likes to be overbriefed." [Source]
Howard Fineman: “Biden is not an academic, he's not a theoretical thinker, he's a great street pol." [Source]
Now ENFJs don't repress Se and are not Ni dominant so I'm aware that this cerebral aspect of their personality is not their most prominent characteristic but, in my view, we shouldn't downplay the auxiliary for the sake of the tertiary. While we should not underestimate the charm and influence of the tertiary function (it's not repressed after all), in the end, it's mostly a third flavor and supports the main two functions in a way that is aspirational and puerile.
Mark Bowden: “In his personal life, Biden could hardly be more traditional. In the scruffy ’60s, when so many young men of his generation went unkempt as a social and political statement, Biden dressed up for class in college, sometimes wearing a tie. He says his first wife, Neilia, described him as ‘the most socially conservative man she had ever known.’” [Source]
Some other quotes where I find that Fe supported by Si (meticulous, practical) makes more sense than Fe supported by Ni (ideational, visionary):
Mark Bowden: “The guideposts in Biden’s political landscape are often not ideas, but people. Many of the world leaders with whom the United States has business are men and women he has known for years, even decades. In fall 2009, for example, after Obama had decided to abandon plans to build land-based missile defenses in eastern Europe—a move interpreted as a concession to Moscow—the White House sent Biden on a three-day swing through Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic to reassure the leaders of those countries that their security would not be compromised. Biden had mastered the details of the issue—the virtues of sea-based anti-missile technology versus land-based, and so on—but his most important asset was that he knew many of the leaders personally.” [Source]
Mark Bowden: “It’s clear that Biden feels he has the superior people skills—not that he puts it that way. He says the skill set he brings is ‘different,’ but it’s a difference he values, and one that he sees as part of his contribution to the administration. … ‘I’m a little more Irish. I’m more old-school. What used to be normal. [Bill] Clinton and I are more similar, whereas [Obama] and probably some of the newer candidates are more similar, in terms of the way they went through the system.’ It is just a difference in style, Biden says, but it works. ‘I think we complement each other.’” [Source]
