[tag]Barack Obama[/tag] seized the lead in the Democratic presidential race by every measure on Friday, including the treasured , as he shifted his fire from rival Hillary Clinton to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

"You shouldn’t be worried about the Democratic Party being divided in November," the Illinois senator told a fairgrounds crowd, adding: "We don’t want any repeats of George Bush, and we’re united" in that.

Obama already led Clinton among pledged delegates and the cumulative popular vote of primaries and caucuses. Across Oregon, his supporters pined Friday for a campaign-clinching victory in the state’s May 20 mail-vote primary. Obama mulled the possibility of paying off Clinton’s campaign debts if she quits. Clinton, meanwhile, made a low-key pitch to reframe the race on her signature issue, health care.

A batch of Clinton’s congressional supporters argued differently in a letter to superdelegates, calling her victory in Pennsylvania last month a "wake-up call" that showed Clinton best positioned to win the White House and help down-ballot Democratic candidates in the fall.

"Obviously, I’d want to have a broad-ranging discussion with Sen. Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward," Obama said. Later he added: "I think historically after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party — particularly when you’ve had a strong opponent — you want to make sure that you’re putting that opponent in a strong position so that they can work to win an election in November."

Obama called the discussion "premature" in an ongoing campaign. Some of his supporters were less reserved. At a Chicago fundraiser, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called for Clinton to drop out and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he’d "counsel" Clinton similarly if she asked.

In New York, Illinois’ most famously undeclared Democrat – Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the House Democratic Caucus chairman – called Obama "the presumptive nominee." But, he added, Clinton could still win the nomination.

NOTE: Why is it that whenever the statement is made about Barack Obama being the, (oh, I love this word) “presumptive nominee,” that is is always followed by the, “but she could still win.” Let the fuck go, Ok people?

HERE’S MORE OF THE GOOD NEWS:

• Obama grabs superdelegate lead
• Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too
• Obama Takes Superdelegate Lead
• Obama Leads in Superdelegates for First Time