As a rule, primary season is a drag.  Interesting candidates get weeded out early, and by the time the big states roll around, we're left with a choice between the protest vote, the guys who's going to win, Dick Gephardt.
But this primary season has not only failed to suck, it's been downright amazing.  As Greg Sargent keeps telling us, we're going to miss it when it's over.
So how come?  The main reason, of course, is that we've had a bunch of good candidates on the Democratic side, and a wonderful assortment of clowns on the other.
But I'd like to approach this from a narrative, rather than strictly political point of view.  What entities or people (other than the candidates themselves) have done most to forestall primary-season boredom?  Here are my selections:
Mike Huckabee:  I know I'm supposed to be for Mitt, here at TPM.  But fried squirrel, IMHO, matches Mitt's greatest hits, and fundamentally fracturing the Republican coalition puts the Huckster over the top.
New Hampshire:  HRC's surprise victory here set up a enduring pattern of reversals and counter-reversals that has prevented the CW from settling down.  Extra credit to female voters, as well, for flipping a bird at the MSM.  I'm an Obama guy, so I didn't much like it at the time, but I've got to give the people of NH some props. 
Ted Kennedy:  By SC there was some danger that the race would turn into a bitter (and tiresome) battle between genders, races, and generations.  The Kennedy endorsements added a badly needed twist to the narrative.  The candidate of post-racial youth was suddenly also the candidate of boomer sentimentality.  Garry Trudeau has gotten so nostalgic that it's hard to read Doonesbury without misting up.
Egregious underperformers:  On the Democratic side, I'm going to say Nevada.  The big drama here was which union could twist more arms to swing the vote.  Not much fun unless you're in the back rooms doing the twisting, and the final result was irritatingly close to pre-election polling.
On the Republican side, California deserves a lot of blame.  They looked like they were going to go for Mitt, but when the chips were down, they chose boring.
What do you think?  Bracket advocacy as much as you can.  I don't think we're going to swing many undecided votes by doing advocacy on TPM.