Top Links: Obama’s fiscal cliff plan, the Ted Cruz you didn’t know, and Biden’s mastery of the photo-op

No fiscal cliff plan. No immigration plan. But it is Friday. Call it a compromise. Here are some of the stories we’ll be discussing at 4 p.m.

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• The president’s fiscal cliff plan: Big, bold, and angering the GOP. (Washington Post)

• So what’s the difference in a Thursday with no deal and a Friday with no deal? The tone of the debate: It’s getting hot in here. (Roll Call)

• Republicans aren’t used to this new President Obama: “Republicans are frustrated at the new Obama they’re facing: The Obama who refuses to negotiate with himself.” (Wonkblog)

• Mitch McConnell reportedly “burst into laughter” at the president’s deal. (The Weekly Standard)

• An unheralded problem: The battle to extend jobless benefits isn’t going well. (Roll Call)

• A fiscal cliff joke that fairly captures Obama’s negotiating strategy. (Political Math)

• Effective, overall tax rates are the lowest in 30 years. (The New York Times)

• But why read when you can learn via interactive graphics: (The New York Times)

• Excellent profile of Tea Partier and Sen.-elect Ted Cruz, R-Texas: “Cruz’s campaign deployed a brand of Glenn Beck-like Tentherism, warning, among other things, that the United Nations was plotting with George Soros to get the federal government to crack down on golf courses in the name of sustainability.”(Mother Jones)

• Here are the internal polls Romney was reading when he was writing a victory, but not a concession, speech. Most interesting in this report, a theory as to why Romney’s pollsters detected momentum that wasn’t actually there: “During the final days of this campaign, only the most loyal partisans were picking up their phones when pollsters called—everyone else seemed to have had enough. … That would have exaggerated the influence of partisans generally.” (The New Republic)

• Syria’s Internet connections have been cut for a second day. (The New York Times)

• The U.S. may soon directly arm the Syrian rebels. (Los Angeles Times)

• “How does [Joe Biden] pretend to be sincerely looking at pies under the glare of 15 iPhones?” (The Atlantic Wire)

• And the always quote-worthy Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa: Obama won the Hispanic vote “with a great big check from money borrowed from the Chinese.” Classy. (Think Progress)