A General's Guarantees?

And now the most riveting two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

A General's Guarantees?

At last night's Democratic presidential candidates debate here in Manchester, New Hampshire, Wesley Clark denied he ever guaranteed that, when he's president, there would be no more 9/11-like attacks in the U.S.

But two weeks ago, in an interview with the Concord Monitor, he said -- "If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the American People. We are not going to have one of these [terrorist] incidents."

Speaking of the debate, the Columbia Journalism Review counted how many words were spoken during it, and found that John Edwards spoke the most, followed by John Kerry. It also found that three of the candidates said less than moderator and questioner Peter Jennings of ABC News, who spoke nearly as much as Howard Dean.

American Support

A new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows that 54 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of President Bush. The poll also shows that 43 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry -- not quite as many as the president but significantly more than three months ago.

And while about the same number of Americans still have a favorable view of Howard Dean from three months ago, nearly twice as many now have an unfavorable view. Meanwhile, the president does about as well on favorability as he does on job performance, with 53 percent approval.

Company Kickbacks?

Halliburton Inc. has fired at least two of its employees for allegedly taking kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company that supplies U.S. troops in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal first reported that two employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR accepted as much as $6 million from the unnamed Kuwaiti firm. Halliburton has said it will pay the Pentagon for any possible overcharges by the unnamed Kuwaiti firm.

Though she would not discuss specifics, a Halliburton spokeswoman says -- "We do not tolerate this kind of behavior at any level." For the record, all this is unrelated to accusations last month that Halliburton overcharged for fuel prices in Iraq. Those accusations have since been batted down by the U.S. Army.

Vanishing Violation

Former South Dakota Republican Rep. William Janklow may have been sentenced to 100 days in jail and fined $5,000 for fatally crashing into a motorist last August, but, unless a judge finds a specific reason otherwise, his felony manslaughter convictions won't be on his record.

Plus, according to the Argus Leader newspaper, he will be eligible to leave jail six days a week for community service. And after three years probation, he can get his driver's license back.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report