I am enjoying Barack Obama’s campaign already for a number of reasons.

First of all there has been a really interesting and productive debate on Salon.com about Obama’s form of blackness and its appeal to the voting public, particularly whites.

Debra Dickerson, in a rather harsh critique, sees Obama’s blackness, free of the racial tensions of a past rooted in the slave-trade, as safe and accessible and not necessitating the discussion and healing of the very important wounds of the past and present.

Greg Kamiya responded with a different perspective, he says that even though Obama isn’t “black” enough in Dickerson’s terms, he is still black and therefore his mere presence and success in the political scene is a good thing for race relations and the problematization of racial categories.

Secondly, one of the most frustrating things about the campaign of John Kerry was its silence and perceived complacency with the rampant rumors, fallacies, half-truths, and unfounded attacks leveled at his character and past.

Obama’s campaign isn’t being quite so docile.

I don’t care if you love or hate Obama; that letter is bad ass.