Will Lewis be ousted as B of A chairman? Doesn't matter

Bank of America (BAC) shareholders may not be able to kick Ken Lewis off of the board of directors at the annual meeting today, but they have some chance of pushing him out as chairman. The stockholder voting options on the B of A proxy allow them to vote separately on each issue.

But it may not matter much if the bank ends up with a non-executive chairman, because it will still have the same board that supported Lewis's decisions to buy Merrill Lynch and succumb to government pressure to keep the deal on track. In other words, titles may change, but the regime stays the same.