Perhaps even more surprising is who did Obama in: a small team of Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee. On Friday, Montana's Jon Tester announced he would not back a Summers nomination. That followed similar comments, via aides, by Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the progressive icon and former Obama aide, was also thought to be reluctant. That meant Summers would have required at least four Republican votes to clear the Senate Banking Committee, and around 10 from the wider Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold likely needed to overcome GOP procedural obstruction.

Until Sunday afternoon, these seemed like just the latest skirmishes in a war. In July, almost a third of the Democrats in the Senate sent a letter to Obama imploring him to appoint Janet Yellen to the job instead. While the letter didn't mention Summers, it was clearly a rebuke to the White House's reported preference. Progressives worried that Summers was too much a part of the Clinton-era economic team that they charged with helping to make the Great Recession possible, and they argued that Yellen had been right more frequently on crucial recent economic issues.

But Obama was reportedly angry at the letter, and dispatched aides to Capitol Hill to vent and get the troops in line. While Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to support whomever the president picked, he apparently wasn't able to keep his caucus completely in line, leading to today's withdrawal.

Here are three political takeaways from the demise of the Summers nomination. First, it suggests that the White House's hands-off style towards legislators has backfired -- or backfired yet again, depending on how you score it. Many political scientists and journalists (including me) have rolled their eyes at pleas for Obama to "reach out" to the Hill through dinners and golf rounds and the like. In short, the thinking is that opposition to Obama's agenda is so hardwired into the current political situation that there's no use making futile social gestures -- partisan exigencies will still keep Republicans following the lead of conservative activists, even if they like the president personally. But here's a case where the White House couldn't even keep a hold on its own senators when it needed them. This is where personal relationships matter.

Second, Sunday's events suggest the administration may have miscalculated its timing for the nomination to replace outgoing Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. Ever slow, methodical, and meticulous, Obama insisted he wouldn't make any pick until well into the fall. But liberal activists and the press weren't playing by his schedule. They had all summer to build up the case against Summers, get their message out, gather support, and make the argument for Yellen. Without even meaning to, Obama forfeited the game.