October 31, 1992

Faced with what he considers to be an alarming loss of credibility for the New York City Police Department, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly yesterday lashed out at a general climate of "police bashing" in the city and at public officials "whose knee-jerk response is to criticize the police at every turn." In an effort to deal with the problem of lost trust, the city agreed to Mr. Kelly's request to postpone the next police entry examination by six months to give recruiters the time to attract more minority applicants to the force.

Battling the impression that President Bush is closing on him, Gov. Bill Clinton returned today to the basics of his strategy, playing to the interests of the vast middle class of Americans who decide every Presidential race. Mr. Clinton and his strategists said Mr. Bush had moved closer, as they have predicted he would. But Mr. Clinton's poll taker and several other aides said today that their own surveys showed Mr. Clinton's slippage had stopped, and that he still retained a seven-point lead in their own surveys.

A new book says that in 1960, some 25 Protestant leaders met to discuss blocking the election of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic. Beliefs, page 10.

Having battered Bill Clinton with assaults on his platform and character, President Bush tried today to challenge Mr. Clinton's claim to be the candidate of change. Speaking in Nashville early today, the President argued that the nation would change no matter who leads it. "The real question," he said, "is not who is for change, but whose changes will make your life better and your world safer."

Newly disclosed notes on a White House meeting in January 1986 contradict President Bush's assertion that he was unaware at the time that arms sold to Iran were part of an arms-for-hostages deal. The handwritten notes were made by Caspar W. Weinberger, who was then Secretary of Defense. They were disclosed in a new indictment of Mr. Weinberger, returned here today by a Federal grand jury working with the Iran-contra prosecutor, Lawrence E. Walsh.