THERE are all sorts of reasons to be puzzled by the

state of today's Republican Party. How did the party

of fiscal responsibility become the party of

out-of-control spending? How did a party that

prided itself on its foreign-policy skills become the

author of the fiasco in Iraq? But from the narrow

point of view of the election, an even more pressing question arises: how did the Republicans lose

their ability to spot star power?

< READ FULL STORY >