“Never before and probably never again will you be in a place with this much influence on making of history.”

Mary Jane Stevenson, the California Field Director, was on the phone with Sen. Obama and David Plouffe this morning, and they were discussing the state of the race and the significant and unprecedented contributions made in several battleground states by the hard-working volunteers in California.

Sen. Obama said he was extremely grateful and enormously impressed by everything we are doing.  He had this message for us:

“Thank you.  I am extremely proud of all you are doing.  You are making a huge difference.  You are the best political campaign staff in history of American democracy."

“Never before and probably never again will you be in a place with this much influence on making of history.”

The senior Obama campaign team explained that the contributions of Californians are absolutely essential to their efforts in several battleground states -- those contests cannot be won without us.

Sen. Obama and Plouffe both warned of over-confidence.  Noting that the 18 days left in the campaign is a political campaign,   Plouffe told Mary Jane and others on the call of another 18-period in the campaign, during which Obama won Iowa, lost New Hampshire, tied in Nevada, and was seeing the first drafts of his political obituaries being drafted.

Sen. Obama urged us all to keep working, even harder, and to recruit more people into this campaign.  "We have come too close," he said.  "We cannot fall short."

Keep up the good work.  Let's kick butt this weekend.