2 Late Nights on the "Late Show"

In reading the news over the past few days, I came across an article about McCain and how he was scheduled to be on the "Late Show," but cancelled his appearance and took a break from the campaign Wednesday night to focus on the economic crisis in our country. I did not actually see the show, and have only the information given to me in the article to go off of, but apparently "Letterman [unloaded] on McCain for not showing up" http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIbK5ZyWUeEJrqOEcChTTkzHi3JgD93DP7U06. Letterman even stated: "Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis or because the poll numbers are sliding?" Of course Letterman would feel a bit bitter about a presidential candidate cancelling coming on his show, but I do not believe that gives him the right to judge someone's character on national television. In fact, I feel that because of things in the media, such as this, happen everyday, ideas and opinions are formed by people other than ourselves. Another article I was reading was about the same topic: Letterman continued to "assault" McCain today and even went as far as to say, "Well, we might not see you on Inauguration Day" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_en_tv/mccain_letterman. This reminds me of something I read in my textbook in English class: Sharon Crowley discusses the topic of past and future conjecture and states that future conjectures are "educated guesses about something that will take place in the future" (Crowley, 121). In this case, it seems to me that Letterman is demonstrating the idea of future conjectures. He is assuming that because McCain cancelled his appearance on his show, that McCain is therefore not a good leader and would not make a good president in the future. I assume that because of his numerous "attacks" on McCain, Letterman is making an educated guess about McCain's leadership in the future, future conjecture.