If [Harriet Miers]'s defenders have dismissed her critics as elitists, they showed no reticence yesterday in extolling [Ben S. Bernanke]'s elite credentials. [Bush] boasted of Bernanke's Harvard University record, his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his chairmanship of the Princeton University Economics Department. In his nine-paragraph announcement, the president was almost dismissive of Bernanke's White House experience, mentioning only in passing, "Since June he has served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers."

R. Glenn Hubbard, a predecessor of Bernanke's at the Council of Economic Advisers, had long been seen as a candidate for the Fed job, but as Bernanke's star rose, so did the voices of Hubbard advocates, who saw him as a stronger conservative. Hubbard's role as architect of Bush's drive to all but eliminate taxes on dividends won him strong allies among supply-side economists, who view tax cuts as the surest path to economic growth.

Bernanke aides had been furious about the shots taken at their boss by conservatives in the [Lawrence B. Lindsey] camp, but they were willing to make a case for Bernanke. On Oct. 11, Bernanke delivered a speech on economic opportunity to the National Economists Club in which he waxed at length on the power of Bush's economic policies, especially his tax cuts.