Many readers are echoing this one:
President Obama is clearly an introvert, but John Heilemann's assertion – "I don’t think he doesn’t like people. I know he doesn’t like people. He’s not an extrovert; he’s an introvert" – is startling. Heilemann assumes that introverts do not like people and that extroverts do. That's just not true. Introverts prefer solitude and tend to go inward when deliberating. Extroverts, on the other hand, prefer the multitude and tend to move outward when deliberating. Introverts may very well like people but find themselves uncomfortable in a crowd. Extroverts might very well dislike people but still find themselves very comfortable in a crowd, even if they don't like the people in the crowd. Introversion and extroversion describe innate preferences for ordering one's surroundings, not the way one feels about people.
Another boils it down:
I once heard a great one-sentence description of the difference: if being in a crowd of unfamiliar people energizes you, you're an extrovert; if it enervates you, you're an introvert.
Another plugs Rauch's beloved manifesto:
I went hunting for one of the best short articles I've read about introverts and found that it came from The Atlantic – "Caring For Your Introvert."
Politics, as Jonathan Rauch points out, tends to be dominated by extroverts, with Bill Clinton taking extroversion to previously unachieved levels. I agree that Obama is an introvert, and the presidency must be more than exhausting for him for that reason alone. As a major introvert who practices medicine, I work with people all day, every day, sometimes in intense situations. I love people and find them fascinating, but I need a lot of time alone to recuperate.
By the way, there's also a new book out called Quiet by Susan Cain – subtitled "The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". It's a really interesting read.
Another compares Obama and Clinton:
Since extroversion and introversion very much have to do with where we get energy, it's not surprising that Obama's introversion leads him to spurn spending time with people when he needs to conserve energy. The campaign trail must be a drag for him – not because he doesn't like people, but because it exhausts him. And Bill Clinton of course gets tremendous energy from other people. In particular Clinton is an extroverted thinker and draws energy from the space between him and anybody else. And if they're introverts, he must exhaust them. He doesn't necessarily like "people" any more than Obama. He likes the charge they give him. At least in this small way, Clinton likes being with people because of what they do for him, not because of what he can do for them.
Another relates to Obama:
My husband is a classic introvert, and spends a great deal of his day alone. But, like the president, he lights up around people, laughs quickly, and enjoys their company very much. He just doesn't want to spend all day with them. He is not recharged emotionally by being with people in the same way that an extrovert is. Obama has always struck me as someone who has a great emotional intelligence and relates to people very well. He's not a glad-hander, but I don't trust that so much, myself, so that appeals to me. He is like me in that we prefer the intimacy of a one-on-one conversation to a large party.
Another:
You can see why having crazy Joe Biden around is so necessary. Decades of backslapping and cajoling.
Another looks to the president's past:
I wonder how much Obama's management style comes from his own personal ethos versus his background as an organizer. As much as this conversation makes the hard-right foam at the mouth, it is true that Obama's specific background in Alinsky-influenced institutional organizing has very established rules about separating your public life from your personal life. Obama's small inner-circle might be more a symptom of intentional design than personal uneasiness.
The fact the he isn't on a speed-dial basis with House Ds or Rs is also not surprising in the context of the organizing world: his analysis (right or wrong) is that his points of contact (Pelosi, Reid, Cantor, Boehner, McConnell) speak for their constituencies and that building personal relationships of the backslapping, fat-chewing variety with these members is definitely inefficient and possibly disruptive to his larger goals. I think that chalking all of this up to Obama's distaste for small-talk is to miss the larger point of how he views the presidency, first and foremost: as a job. I think that is, for better or worse, a distinction that Clinton can't make. Ryan Lizza's excellent piece for TNR, "The Agitator", does a better job of detailing the finer points of this than I could.
Another:
Always remember that our most celebrated president was also our most celebrated introvert: Abraham Lincoln.
More than 50 readers offered their thoughts on the subject but we unfortunately don't have space for all of them. However, you can continue the conversation at our unfiltered Facebook page, where we started a thread on introversion vs extroversion.
(Photo: Former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama after Clinton's speech during the 2012 Democratic National Convention at the Time Warner Center on September 5, 2012. By Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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