Everybody hates Ted Cruz. Democrats hate him because of the government shutdown in protest of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans hate him because he is an influential figure for Tea Party voters. Yet the senator from Texas has been making headlines in the papers for the last few weeks once again. In fact, the New York Times reported he was the first candidate to announce his bid for the 2016 presidential election on March 23.

Cruz is the poster child for the far right, and in a time where bipartisanship is scarce, voters ought to be skeptical of a rigid policymaker. At the same time, Republican voters can’t help but want to see a new name in the White House. Another Bush is just as appealing as another Clinton, but fortunately the primary is still a ways out.

Cruz has all of the promise of the Tea Party minority, as well as some of the more conservative Republicans. It is certainly fair to assume that he will capture the attention of an insignificant amount of voters who share his radical ideology on government. Of course, as the educated voter base starts to look at the presidential candidates, they will see how absurd some of Cruz’s policy recommendations are.

Ideologically, it makes sense that Cruz would want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats argue that it is a great idea to get affordable insurance to working Americans who could not afford a private plan. However, it is extremely expensive and requires a lot more taxation. Cruz realizes we don’t want to pay for other Americans’ health bills, especially if they consider the ER as a primary care institution.

In a great show of hypocrisy, Cruz has actually signed up his own family under the Affordable Care Act. So I suppose Cruz just wants to take advantage of the system by standing on the backs of workers, just like those he claims to oppose.

In any case, leading a government shutdown is a sure way to get absolutely nothing done. Americans love to either throw money at a problem or wish it away, and neither of these political strategies are effective.

Perhaps the worst policy recommendation that Cruz has supported is the lack of funding for environmental issues. According to the Huffington Post, Cruz claims there isn’t enough evidence for global warming because there was no significant change in the last fifteen years. It’s important to note that fifteen years is a relatively short amount of time compared to Earth’s four-and-a-half billion years of age.

Despite this shortcoming, Business Insider reported that Cruz does want to expand NASA to follow its main mission: explore space, and more of it. As the Ukrainian crisis continues to escalate, Cruz is willing to call out the Russians on controlling the gateway to the international space station. In a grand speech, he even cited our late John F. Kennedy for laying down the foundation for America to explore in the stars.

While I love the idea of expanding NASA, shouldn’t a presidential candidate realize how foreign policy affects our international space exploration efforts? The I.S.S. is a multi-national project which includes the Russian Federation, NASA and the European Space Agency.

Building our own space station will be expensive and less effective. American exceptionalism is great for speeches, but in practice we need our scientific minds collaborating as a planet, not as petty nations. Still, if Cruz is the Darth Vader of NASA, at least he has plans for building the Death Star.

Having worked as a lawyer, and part of the republican rank and file, Cruz has a great understanding of domestic politics. Unfortunately, the role of commander in chief requires a bit of knowledge in foreign policy and none of our last three presidents have specialized in the field.

A certain former secretary of state might end up being a better candidate, unless the Republican Party can provide a more suitable option.