It's not a terribly insightful observation, but the tone of the Democratic primary race has sunk to the 3rd-grade level.

For too long, name-calling from high-profile surrogates has dominated news coverage, making the entire party look pathetic, and helping boost McCain who looks dignified by default.

How to break out of this cycle of lameness?

It's not in Sen. Clinton's interest to break out of it. She wins by dragging the Obama campaign down and stripping it of its "New Politics" sheen.

Whereas some of Obama's finest moments have been when he plays the role of adult.

When he batted back the "plagiarism" charge in the Texas debate, using straight-forward common sense: "the notion that I had plagiarized from somebody who's one of my national co-chairs, who gave me the line and suggested that I use it, I think is silly ... But this is where we start getting into silly season in politics, and I think people start getting discouraged about it."

When in the Cleveland debate, he gently mocked the attempt to divine a difference between "reject" and "denounce."

And last week, when he confronted the cheap politics of division with a historic address on race that elevated the discourse.

Of course, you can't give an historic address every day.

But in the other two moments, he simply came across as a regular voter disgusted by a system mired in pathetic childish politics that do little to help citizens make informed decisions about their democracy.

When he gets back from his mini-vacation, he might consider hitting the ground running with another adult moment.

After all, it's been a whole week since we've had one.