Political stories come and go. Most disappear. They seem a big deal at the time, and a week later, if you mention them, no one knows what you’re talking about. In the 2004 election the Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers always referred to John Kerry as “the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.” They thought it witty and useful . After all, it rallied the base, and it ticked off the liberals no end. But no one remembers it now. Kerry lost.