He will be a President someday, mark my words if you wanna.
It's not even his positions that make him great, but how he unregrettfully defends his positions. He is a "leader", however you define it and I think the appearance of being a staunch leader is more important to Americans (in general) than ideology.
If he ran in the GOP primary, I don't know one Northeastern or Midwestern state that wouldn't go for him. He's about the only prominent Republican I can see being the frontrunner in Iowa and New Hampshire. He'd have a very good chance of winning Florida too as long as Jeb Bush or Rubio weren't running (and even if they were, he'd still have a chance there).
Win those three states and the nomination is all but locked up.