Matt Lauer constructed a very crafty, wordy, and rather underhanded question for his Republican presidential candidate guest, Jeb Bush. It was obvious that the Today show host was practiced and very eager to lob this one on air.

Lauer punched his mitt, looked his opponent in the eye during the wind up, and threw this stinger aimed right for Bush's jugular:

Clearly your resume and your pedigree are perfect for the job of president. You come from a family with a long history of public service. Your dad was president, your brother was president. You were a successful governor in a very important state, Florida. You know education, immigration. You're fluent in Spanish. And after deliberating for a long time, you decide to get in the race right now -- and I don't mean to be funny about this -- and after several months in the race, you're losing in the polls to the host of Celebrity Apprentice. How do you get your arms around that?

Strike one!

At first, Bush was lured in by what seemed to be a complement about being "perfect for the job of president." He responded, "Thanks, Matt." But Lauer paid it no mind, bulldozing through his rehearsed lines to deliver the finishing blow.

It must've knocked him off balance, because Jeb was left stammering on about it being no big deal:

"It doesn't matter to me in October, because when we get closer to February, people will want to know, does he have -- does he care about me? Does he have ideas to lift me up? Does he have the leadership skills to fix these things? That's always been the way it works in politics.

Bush never recovered, ending awkwardly on a story about John McCain:

In October of eight years ago, John McCain was by himself in the Atlanta airport, I was there, as well. I gave him a hug and I said, 'What's going on, man?' He had no support. He won the Republican nomination because he worked hard and he had great ideas, and he showed his heart.

Watch Matt display his extreme bias below via NBC: