A look at noteworthy addresses in the...

A look at noteworthy addresses in the Southland. William Kristol, former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, spoke Tuesday at Claremont McKenna College. From Kristol’s remarks: On the 1992 Election “In a sense, the 1992 election, for all that we who were close to it think it was exciting, momentous and significant, was a fairly conventional election. . . . It’s not that surprising that after 12 years of Republican victories the Democrats would win for a change . . . a medium-sized, straightforward victory.

“There were things going on in ’92 that were unusual. But one can make the case that the election was pretty conventional. . . . However true that analysis might be, Bill Clinton has a strategy, a political strategy, to make the 1992 election more than just a routine election where power passes from one party to the other. He would like to make the 1992 election a watershed election, upon which he builds a new governing, liberal Democratic majority.

On President Clinton’s Economic Plan “(Many) economists say that (Clinton’s economic plan) seems to be incoherent and muddled economic policy, which I believe is true, but misses the point. His economic package is not an economic package, it’s a political package. He does have a coherent political strategy behind his economic plan.

“The aim of this political strategy is to build on the 1992 election, to create a permanent Democratic governing majority, or at least as permanent as you can in politics. The political plan is to reverse the Reagan revolution . . . to push a program that, once established, will lock in political support for the governing party that passed that program and that is associated with that program for the future. That’s why health care is really the core of Clinton’s program, not the economic plan.

“If Clinton can succeed with this economic package . . . he will have possibly laid the groundwork for a pretty significant political change: a restoration of Democratic hegemony at the presidential level.

On the Republicans’ Role “Can the Republicans be an obstacle to this? . . . It will require much more radical and fresh, innovative thinking than Republicans have shown in the last few years.

“There’s a powerful popular sentiment for change. Bush became the perfect candidate of the status quo. He was never able to convincingly articulate any vision of conservative change or reform in a conservative direction or any kind of credible conservative reform agenda. . . . It’s a political fact that one needs to have, in the current circumstances, a coherent vision of change, a plan of change. “

Looking Ahead Thursday: Elena Bonner, human rights activist, on “Fighting for Human Rights in the Former Soviet Union,” at the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel, noon. Sponsored by Town Hall of California, (213) 628-8141.

Announcements concerning prominent speakers in Los Angeles should be sent to Speaking Up, c/o Times researcher Nona Yates, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053