Bloomberg

Commentary by Caroline Baum

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Within days of the Republican upset in the Massachusetts special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat, Barbara Boxer saw the way forward.

“It is time for a change -- it is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed,” the three-term California Democratic senator said on Jan. 22. “Dr. Bernanke played a lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis. Our next Federal Reserve chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past.”

California voters are sympathetic to the idea of change, too. Boxer...