Ken
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barackobamaknoxcollege.htm
Read it. Don’t listen to the audio. Keep the oratory out of the loop.
Simple specifics?
He understands history. The real history of this country, not the myth making needed to make just good soldiers or good consumers.
He understands the constitution and its relationship to the Enlightenment philosophers.
He understands the Great Experiment that this country is. The first nation ever to attempt to replace the Church – State – Aristocracy governing balance of feudalism, with the Executive, legislative and Judicial branches of a republic.
The dynamic tension between the branches of each system are necessary to their longevity, but only in the latter system can the governed have a say in how the government functions.
He also seems to understand that old FDR quote:
We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt