Jim DeMint?
If Jim DeMint uses his new time and the outreach ability of Heritage Foundation to immediately launch a massive new media effort to enlighten the minds of citizens on the ideas of liberty underlying their Declaration and Constitution, then, perhaps by 2016, he could be recognized as an intellectual leader in the mold of President Washington or President Jefferson.
Those ideas, if presented as principles-oriented supports for individual liberty and opportunity for every citizen, have an appeal to the gift of reason which the Creator has made a part of our nature, as the Founders recognized.
President Reagan tapped into such an appeal, and the people responded; but, then, Ronald Reagan had studied and developed an understanding of the ideas for himself. As a result, he could articulate them in the language of the day.
A candidate who simply recites trite phrases about "private sector" versus "public sector," "helping the 'middle' class" (the Founders didn't recognize 'class'--that's a "progressive" idea), and "capitalism" versus "socialism" will never enlighten the minds of citizens who, for decades, have not been exposed to the "self-evident" truths embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
The counterfeit ideas of "progressives" never can stand exposure to the authentic ideas of freedom, as presented to the world in 1776. The problem today is presenting a clear view of the "idea that changed the world."