For Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 2009 may be a tough year as political battles pile on top of tough economic challenges.

Bernanke must juggle a host of problems as he tries to revive the economy. With the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and still climbing, he faces the challenge of recovering from an 18-month-old recession with unconventional policies that some worry will ignite inflation.

On the political front, he has the daunting task of convincing Congress the Fed deserves a leading role in a restructured financial oversight system even as he addresses criticism of Fed failings before the financial collapse and some actions since.

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd said giving the Fed more authority “is like having a parent giving his son a bigger, faster car, right after he crashed the family station wagon.”

Still, economists give Bernanke an 8 out of 10 for his handling of the economic crisis, according to a Reuters poll and he has the support of Congress members who value his steady hand during the crisis. President Obama said “he has done a fine job under the circumstances.”

The end of his term is just six months away — do you think he deserves to win another four years running the Federal Reserve?

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are urging Congress to act swiftly on a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial system.

Politico.com quotes a former Federal Reserve official as saying, “the alternative is complete financial Armageddon and a great depression.”

Hugo Duncan writes in the Evening Standard that if the bailout fails, “banking stocks are likely to drag shares around the world into the mire sparking further panic over the financial system and state of the economy. It would make recession in America and Britain ever more likely, with house prices and standards of living falling and repossessions and unemployment rising.”

Assuming that Congress approves the Bernanke-Paulson bailout plan, do you think it is enough to stabilize the banking sector?

The impact on Main Street from the crisis on Wall Street is another open question. “How long it will take the banks to restore health to their balance sheets, raise capital and start lending money again,” Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, tells Nick Carey. ”That could take a year and credit conditions may start to improve in the second half of 2009.”

For full coverage of the crisis in credit, click here.