More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
On Monday's NBC Today, while discussing Senator Ted Cruz's announcement of his presidential candidacy, co-host Savannah Guthrie described the Texas Republican as "whip smart, a real conservative firebrand, knows how to throw those rhetorical bombs that the base loves."
Guest and Bloomberg Politics managing editor Mark Halperin observed: "I think he's a second-tier candidate right now. But he captures as well as anybody else part of what the Republican Party wants. They want someone to go to Washington and shake things up....Ted Cruz's challenge is to continue to say, 'I can change things but also I can manage things, I can make Washington work.' Because Republicans want that, too."