Washington Bureau Chief Bill Lambrecht shares this sampling of pro-Obama comments in the national press — pulled from the bottom section of Hotline’s assembled Obama coverage from last weekend.

Lambrecht observed: “Looking around, it seems like a lot of Obama coverage over the weekend, especially columns and editorials, was laudatory to say the least — even NY Post and George Will. I would expect it to toughen up in a hurry.”

• New York Times‘ Krugman writes if Obama wins in Nov., “it will be because our country has already been transformed.” Obama’s nomination is “possible today only because racial division” has “lost much of its sting,” thanks to B. Clinton ending welfare, “the decline in urban violence,” and possibly the emphasis on political correctness (6/9).

• Philadelphia Inquirer’s Eichel writes, “Obama’s ability to reach a comfort threshold with large numers” of voters, including those “hesitant to support a black candidate,” will “have a huge impact” (6/9).

• New York Times‘ Mabry writes, Obama “left it to the media to point out the racial accomplishment” of winning the Dem nod, and “downplayed” race for much of his campaign (6/8).

• Crisis magazine ed. Jabari Asim writes in the Washington Post, Obama will accept the Dem nod “exactly 45 years after” MLK’s “historic speech at the March on Washington.” For some “civil rights loyalists,” it’s “hard not to feel a spine-tingling thrill. But for a surprising number of others, the overwhleming feeling last week was apprehension” (6/8).

• New York Post’s Avlon writes, “Obama is well equipped to heal the wounds left by the late 1960s. He can fulfill the promise of Bobby Kennedy’s unfinished campaign by building a broad coalition across racial, geographic and political lines” (6/8).

• New York Times‘ Herbert writes, “A victory lap is in order. Not for Senator Obama (he still has a way to go), but for all those in every station in life who ever refused to submit quietly to hatred and oppression. They led us to a better place” (6/7).

• Los Angeles Times editorializes, “By any measure, our nation has demonstrated laudable maturity in this campaign, overcoming many myths” (6/7).

• Orange County Register editorializes, “We’ve come a long way, baby.” But “none of this is to suggest that anybody should vote for or against Barack Obama based on anything other than the content of his character and the quality of his (still less-than-vague) policy proposals (6/8).

• Chicago Tribune’s Schmich writes, “Win or lose, Obama is virtually guaranteed to write a third installment of his life story.” He is “fundamentally and temperamentally, a writer as much as he is a politician” (6/8).

• George Will: “Obama’s words mesmerize a nation accustomed to leaders who routinely use words with antic indifference to their accuracy” (Newsweek, 6/7).