The Senate just voted for cloture on Ben Bernanke's confirmation for his second term as Federal Reserve Chairman. The vote was 77-23 . This vote is good news for the country as it shows that sanity has prevailed over misplaced populism and anger over the Federal Reserve Chairman. The facts here are pretty clear and those facts dictate that Mr. Bernanke is the right man for the job at this time.
UPDATE: Final vote tally for confirmation was 70-30
Bernanke inherited a mess of an economy not only from his predecessor, but from horrible legislative economic policy from years before (CFMA and FSMA) that not only enabled a housing bubble to explode (beginning in 1995)
but that essentially enabled (which we all know means encouraged) the very financial "innovations" that helped to fuel the mess that lead to the recession of 2007 and panic of 2008 (including vast oil speculation). Bernanke's expertise in the causes of and factors that worsened the Great Depression became quite necessary in our Fed Chair who was now faced with a similar set of circumstances (ie a deflationary bust). Bernanke acted very quickly when needed to prevent more fear and panic from creating a negative feedback loop that would have wreaked economic devastation even worse than what we have seen so far.
This is not to say that Ben is not perfect or that he didn't make mistakes along the way, just that he is simply the most qualified man to circumnavigate the potential we face(d) for experiencing another Great Depression and that he acted quickly to prevent the panic that helped to fuel the Great Depression from setting in (ie guaranteeing money markets, the AIG bailout, TARP, buying securities (mortgage, student loan, and others) when the market for these disappeared.
Today we can be thankful that our elected representatives put aside populist anger and voted for the best man to lead the Federal Reserve during this recession and the man best suited to guide us to a recovery.