Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by "extraordinary."  The reason he doesn't send email is that he can't use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country.  From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care.  The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Does anyone know why McCain doesn’t use a computer or email?  As a couple readers suggested to me, it might be because his injuries prevent it.  I mean he can’t lift his arms much higher than his chest and it looks like he has all sorts of other mobility problems with them.  Maybe he can’t type or use something like a blackberry.  I don’t know.  But I hope the Obama campaign found out before they played the granpa Simpson card on McCain.  I’d hate for Obama to be mocking a veteran’s disability to score cheap points.

This angle is blowing up all over the right-wing blogosphere.  What's interesting is that, while right-wing media is having a field day pushing this line, the McCain campaign hasn't taken up the cause.  Maybe it's because of pictures like this:



this



this



and quotes like this:

“I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself,” McCain told the New York Times in an interview that appeared Sunday.  “I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”

Even so, McCain bluntly admits, “I don’t e-mail.  I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail.”

and this:

“John McCain travels with a laptop,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

This is a clever strategy, with potential pitfalls.  Plant the seed in enough people's minds that Obama is picking on a disabled man (bullshit), which forces the Obama people to undermine their own argument about McCain's tech illiteracy by proving he's not too disabled to use computers, cell phones, blackberries, you name it.

Be prepared for this one to blow up next week. 

But just remember: if you hear someone claim that Obama is picking on a disabled veteran, please point out to them that the man who "can't comb his hair" has no trouble driving while using a cell phone, and carries around his own laptop.  Maybe he's using it to beat disagreeable reporters over the head with, but I imagine he turns it on once in awhile.  For some reason, he just doesn't use it for the internets.

The McCain camp can't have it both ways, and they know it.  The POW can't be so disabled that he can't use a computer, while at the same time tech-savvy enough to refute the ad mockery.  That's why the conflicting messages. 

McCain knows people already dwell on his age.  Is it really worth getting them to dwell on his infirmities as well, just for a short-term sympathy backlash?  Which is it, folks?