Reaction to Clinton Address Mixed in O.C. : Speech: Some say his call for shared sacrifice is on target. Others say he can’t be trusted.

Leisure World resident Al Potter applauded President Clinton’s President’s Day speech Monday and his call for common sense in government, although he is not sure his neighbors in the retirement community would agree.

Potter, 77, a registered Republican who voted for Clinton, said senior citizens should realize they will have to share the burden if the federal deficit is ever to be reduced. Cuts in Medicare and increases in Social Security taxes are expected to be major parts of the deficit-reduction program Clinton will unveil Wednesday.

“Frankly, I’m disappointed with my generation,” said Potter, former owner of a water conditioning business in Iowa and a member of the Leisure World Republican Club. “We are the biggest millstone around the government’s neck there is. I understand 70% of all entitlement programs go to senior citizens. If you don’t start cutting those, we will never have a balanced budget.”

His opinions don’t often win him friends among his neighbors, however.

“Oh boy, when I start talking about how senior citizens should be taxed more, people here think I’m crazy,” Potter said.

One of those might be Leisure Worlder Jan Nelson, a lifelong Republican who is not a Clinton fan, although not necessarily because of his tax plans. Nelson, 67, a retired director of nursing services for a Lincoln, Neb. hospital, said she just doesn’t believe Clinton.

“My basic problem with Clinton is I don’t trust the man,” Nelson said. “I think the things he said in the campaign were said to get elected. The things he took off on (candidate Paul) Tsongas for, he’s now doing, like cutting Social Security entitlements. I think he’s a politician from the word go.”

Elsewhere in Orange County, Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said he appreciates the fact Clinton is calling for a major sacrifice and leading by example.

“He is taking the lead by cutting the White House staff by 25%,” said Daly, 38, a lifelong resident of Anaheim and a registered Democrat. “That’s something I put into the category of long overdue.”

Other long overdue programs included by Clinton were universal vaccinations and a national public service corps for young people, said Daly, who described the Clinton speech as “good, plain talk.

“Clearly, Washington, D.C., needs major reform and a major overhaul. I think Clinton is showing he has the guts to take on some of those meaningful reforms,” Daly said.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, a Republican who made headlines early in the campaign by defecting to the Clinton camp along with a group of prominent county women, said she was glad that he included talk of welfare reform. “If they could do that at the federal level, it would help us at the local level,” she said.

Wieder also said she was happy that Clinton spoke of patriotism.

“He took the high road and waved the flag, I liked that,” she said.

But Gary L. Hausdorfer, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said he is not optimistic.

“Clinton got elected for saying George Bush was wrong and had basically broken promises to the public,” said Hausdorfer, a Republican. “I have to say as I listen . . . it sounds to me like Clinton is going to be doing a lot of things he said he would not be doing during the campaign.”