The latest item on Sen. Barack Obama’s official YouTube channel is a wacky, dorky, irreverent video titled, really, “Robots Attack!”

Wonder why they didn’t use this in the prime-time infomercial…

PRODUCTION NOTES: This offbeat video is for voters who feel like they’ve seen everything, because there are no campaign ads like this. A light-hearted mash-up of old movies and a brooding musical score set the tone for an appeal for supporters to volunteer and “contact voters now!”

I don’t cover politics at TWI, so I’m not going to comment on the campaign strategy behind the remarks. But I do live in Arlington, in a neighborhood called Clarendon. And I can tell you a little bit about what’s been going on here.

During the past few weeks, people who posted “Obama for President” signs in their yards in Clarendon and in the nearby neighborhood of Lyon Park received this letter. Addressed to “Dearest Neighbor,” the letter informed them, in a tone meant to be friendly and helpful, that they should consider the possibility that they are supporting Obama to cover up for their own, hidden racism.

Here’s the letter:

The neighborhood listserve lit up with people arguing over who could have been responsible for the letter, until the moderator shut the topic down. No one knows for sure. The letter itself has made it on to two anti-racism websites, and a site that chronicles voter suppression. The Institute for Healing Racism posted a statement on its site disavowing anything to do with it.

In the meantime, life goes on as usual, here in the communist suburbs of Northern Virginia.