By JOEL MATHIS and BEN BOYCHUK, Scripps Howard News Service

Rush Limbaugh isn't one of the most successful broadcasters in history because of his mild-mannered personality. The conservative talk-show host attracts 20 million listeners a week because he has a knack for stirring up controversy. And Limbaugh did just that within days of President Obama's inauguration.

Is Gitmo worth the grief? President Barack Obama wasn't in office 24 hours before he ordered military prosecutors to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings for terrorist suspects at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama followed up with an executive order directing the Pentagon to close down the prison within the next 12 months.

Many Americans have been recently overjoyed as gasoline prices -- which earlier this year topped $4 a gallon -- dipped below $2. Is it time for a hike in fuel taxes? Charles Krauthammer thinks so.

George W. Bush leaves office in less than a month as one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history, his approval rating still hovering around 15 percent. He leaves the nation in economic turmoil at home and bitterly divided over his policies abroad.

The last two presidents have been notable for the fury they aroused in their opponents. Bill Clinton's critics were so angry about his marital infidelities -- and about his Vietnam-era draft dodging and pot smoking, among other issues -- that they hounded him throughout his two terms, culminating in his impeachment. And George W.

Barack Obama's historic victory has created a new electoral map.Several red Republican states turned blue for Democrats on Election Day. Some blue states turned even bluer. Predictably, the result has buoyed Democrats and depressed Republicans. Less predictable is whether the change will last.

Edited JPJoe Wurzelbacher, a middle-class Ohio contractor, asked Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama about his tax plans a few weeks ago. Now, all of a sudden, Americans are having a debate about socialism.

If there's one thing most Americans can agree on in these otherwise-divided days, it's this: The news media is biased.

The war in the Caucasus has been compared by some on the right to Germany's seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in 1938. Officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate, have argued for a forceful American response to the new crisis.

Barack Obama's widely publicized visit to Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe puts renewed focus on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's plans for combating terrorism in the post-Bush era.