WASHINGTON — Today — the day President Bush begins his second term — is a good day for Jeanne Mariaca and her family.

The Mariacas, of Irmo, say having George W. Bush in the White House gave the nation a clearly articulated conservative moral vision.

“He’s very outspoken on where he stands morally,” Mariaca says. “That makes a difference in a politician.”

Some 20 miles away in Hopkins, Walter Anderson sees in today’s festivities only more of what changed his family’s life for the worse during the past four years.

“The tax break didn’t go very far,” says Anderson, a hair stylist and father of five. “Life is harder now than it was four years ago. It’s not just me, it’s everybody.”

That, he says, has translated into fewer customers for him.

Two South Carolina families. Two sharply contrasting views of what four years of the presidency of George W. Bush has meant to them and their neighbors.

Which is right?

Most South Carolinians endorsed Bush and his policies on Election Day: He grabbed 58 percent of the S.C. vote, as opposed to 53 percent nationwide.

The six out of 10 South Carolinians who voted for Bush tended to do so enthusiastically, and those who chose Democrat John Kerry most frequently described their decision as a vote against Bush. That kind of polarization tends to happen when a president cleaves closely to a particular ideology — as Bush does.

He will incite robust support, disillusioned detractors and very little in between — as demonstrated by the small number of undecided voters during the 2004 campaign.

For example, South Carolinians who support the war in Iraq and those who consider the war a mistake may never agree on the Bush presidency.

But evaluating a presidency — at least economically — need not be a wholly subjective exercise.

BUSH’S TAX CUTS

President Bush presided over three rounds of tax cuts that benefited 1.4 million South Carolinians and 290,000 small S.C. businesses, according to administration figures. The increase in the child tax credit to $1,000 from $600 helped more than 385,000 S.C. families.

Only Congress, not the president, has the power to reduce taxes. But it was Bush’s team that designed the cuts. And it was Bush — as both a candidate and president — who lobbied for them.

State Rep. Bobby Harrell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, says those cuts have revved up South Carolina’s economy.

“We’ve fared very well in this state as a result of President Bush being president,” says Harrell, a Republican from Charleston.

South Carolina Democrats focus less on taxes and more on jobs, which, they say, President Bush has failed to create.

“In my district, unemployment is high; it’s still in double digits here; jobs have disappeared,” says state Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter, D-Orangeburg. Bush’s tax cuts, she says, mostly helped wealthier South Carolinians.

“The rich have gotten richer and the poor have stayed poor or gotten poorer,” she says.

BUSH AND JOBS

USC research economist Don Schunk has analyzed South Carolina’s job picture in detail.

Bush’s presidency coincides with both a dramatic dip and rebound in employment, he says.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in S.C. was 4.3 percent when Bush took office. It peaked at 7.2 percent in July 2003. Plant closings hit the nation hard, and South Carolina fared worse than many states whose economies are less dependent on manufacturing.

Throughout Bush’s first term, the South Carolina consistently ranked among the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates.

Since the summer of 2003, however, the jobless rate has generally fallen — it stood at 6.6 percent in November, the latest numbers available. And Schunk predicts South Carolina companies will create more jobs in 2005.

But he doesn’t give Bush much of the blame or credit for South Carolina’s employment trends. Other factors — low interest rates, the continued decline in the nation’s manufacturing sector — affect employment more strongly.

“Most economists would tend to agree that when you’re looking at what influences the short-term direction of the economy,” Schunk says, “what the Federal Reserve does with interest rates has a greater impact than what a president or Congress does by adjusting taxes or government spending.”

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

Economics aside, Irmo’s Jeanne Mariaca says Bush’s willingness to talk about his values has made an even bigger difference in the lives of her three children — ages 11, 12 and 14.

“They really support what he stands for and they became involved in politics,” says Mariaca, an office manager in her husband’s structural engineering firm. “They watched all the debates and they were very politically aware.”

Walter Anderson, meanwhile, worries about his friends and family in Hopkins, those acutely affected by the slumping economy, which he still lays at Bush’s feet.

“People don’t have jobs,” he says. “Those that do are working more hours for less money and can’t get overtime. A lot of people don’t have health insurance. Some of my children have it, some of them don’t.

“It’s a struggle.”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com