Top Links: Romney’s ‘gift’ for gab, McCain’s Rice hypocrisy, and Bono on the ‘fiscal cliff’

Mitt Romney is the gift that keeps on giving.

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• Mitt Romney’s assessment of what went wrong: Obama promised black people and Hispanics free “gifts.” Yeah, he went there. (Los Angeles Times) and (The New York Times)

• Oh, and young women? Romney says you only voted for Obama because you knew he would be handing out “free contraceptives.” You know, because of all the sex. (Jamil Smith) and (David Leonhardt)

• Immediately after those comments surfaced, Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal grabbed his 10-foot-pole to refute those comments and keep their stink off his 2016 ambitions. (Beltway Confidential)

• In fact, the GOP as a whole is throwing Romney under his “Believe in America” bus. (National Journal)

• And former Gov. Haley Barbour has a few words for the miserable state of the GOP. Those words? “Proctology exam.” No kidding. (Reid Wilson)

• But here’s why Romney’s “gifts” remarks are so laughable: NBC’s (Mark Murray)

• Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have strong words for a potential secretary of state nominee who may have made incorrect public statements based on faulty intelligence. Well, when that person is a Democrat. (The Fact Checker)

• In fact, here’s McCain on Condoleezza “WMD” Rice’s confirmation eight years ago: “I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion. I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election.” (Slate)

• Ya like some swagger in your president? Because Obama is daring Republicans to spike a Susan Rice nomination. (Passport)

• Get to know China’s new head of state Xi Jinping. (BBC)

• Looks like Europe is double-dipping on bad economic times. (The Guardian)

• And when right-wing media starts talking about the spike in jobless claims being proof that President Obama doesn’t understand blah, blah, blah the economy—remember that this happened: (Bloomberg)

• Even Bono is starting to warn about the dangers of the “fiscal cliff.” We hope he’s not buggin’ ya. He doesn’t mean to bug ya. (Real Time Economics)