In a continuing effort to bring you cheerful news even when the world seems determined to be abysmal, I want to point out that next week is the end of the primary election season. Which began, as we all know, sometime during the reign of Ethelred the Unready.

The sole exception is Louisiana, which is having yet another series of runoffs on Oct. 2. What is it with you, Louisiana? We worry about your weather, your oil wells, your family-values senator consorting with prostitutes. And now it seems you’re never going to stop voting. Why are you making this so complicated?

But let’s focus on Delaware, which is having one of several big primaries on Tuesday that pit an established Republican against a Tea Party insurgent. Until recently, everyone presumed the Senate nominee would be Mike Castle, 71, a former governor who has been the state’s one and only congressman for the last 18 years. (We will stop here and briefly contemplate the fact that while Delaware has enough people to fill only one of the nation’s 435 Congressional districts, it gets two senators.)

Then the Tea Party Express, which provided critical financial help to a little-known right-wing insurgent who won the Senate nomination in Alaska, announced it was sending $250,000 to Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. That was followed by The Endorsement. Sarah Palin called Sean Hannity’s radio show and then made the all-important Facebook posting, predicting O’Donnell would “help usher in the real change we need to get America on the right track.”