Reuters

We don't know who the next Fed Chair will be, but we know who it won't. It won't be Obama favorite -- and liberal bête noire -- Larry Summers, who officially withdrew his name from consideration on Sunday. It's just the latest plot twist in what has to be the nerdiest, and certainly most consequential, reality show ever: America's Next Top Central Banker.

So how did we get here, and where are we headed now?

The Summers quasi-candidacy was a bit strange from the beginning. Strange that the administration never actually nominated him, but rather let his trial balloon die a death of a thousand pinpricks. And strange that Summers -- who for all his brilliance lacked any relevant central banking or research experience -- was the frontrunner to begin with. Now, I don't want to overstate this last part. It wasn't strange that Summers was on the short list -- he could and would have been a fine Fed Chair. But it was a little strange that he was ahead of the more obviously qualified Fed number two Janet Yellen. As Ezra Klein explains, it wasn't about policy per se as much as Obama's extreme preference for keeping the economy in the hands of people he'd already worked with.

And then the politics happened. Now, it's no secret that liberal Democrats don't like Summers. But neither do some not-so-liberal Democrats. Take your pick why. He was a gung-ho deregulator during the 1990s, consulted for Citigroup and hedge funds during the 2000s, and made some, at best impolitic, remarks about women and science during his Harvard presidency. These critics didn't really care that he had changed his tune on regulation (not quite a come-to-Jesus moment, but close enough) or that he'd never actually worked on Wall Street or that he had a long history of promoting women. Two Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee -- the first hurdle in the confirmation process -- publicly said that they would oppose Summers. Then, last Friday, Montana Senator Jon Tester made it three. With Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren also harboring "serious concerns" about him, Summers might have needed four Republican votes just to get out of committee. That would have been a heavy political lift -- too heavy when the administration was focusing its attention on Syria and the upcoming budget battles. Summers realized as much, and, to his credit, made the tough (but correct) decision to bow out.