The Nobel Prize-winning economist explains the mistakes of the non-Nobel economist.

Summers made some pretty big mistakes in his campaign [to be Fed chair]. …Summers did not recognize the extent to which the political world has changed. He’s been carefully cultivating an image as a Very Serious Person, in a world where VSPness has gone from a source of cachet to being a liability on both right and left.

Think about it. Carefully cultivating a reputation for Seriousness does you no good on the right in a world where the Republican Party is more or less officially committed to crank economic doctrines, and where the GOP’s universally acknowledged intellectual leader is an obvious flimflam man.

Meanwhile, many if not all Democrats are well aware that the VSPs have been wrong about everything for the past decade or more, from the risks of financial deregulation to the fear of nonexistent bond vigilantes. Coming across as the return of Robert Rubin may have seemed savvy back in, say, 2008; it’s worse than useless now.

Krugman allows that Summers might still get the job, but only if the President is willing to expend a substantial amount of political capital on his behalf.

So is that what Obama did yesterday?

the president described Mr. Summers as a rock of stability who deserved credit for helping to steer the American economy back from the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing recession. …

The Washington Post put it this way:

With the grumbling against Summers growing, Obama on Wednesday mounted an extraordinary defense of his friend and old adviser in the halls of Congress….

I have a slightly different take than Krugman; my argument is that Summers is such a contentious personality, and has made such dubious choices (Wall Street buckraking, the end of Glass-Steagall, opposing derivatives regulation, talking about women in science, Andrei Shleifer, treating so many people so badly) that, politically speaking, he dies the death of a thousand cuts. There are just so many angles of criticism opponents can take against him… You defend Summers against one thing, and critics just change the channel to the next. And this is where all those years of insufferable arrogance kick in; people just don’t like Summers.

For this reason, I would be surprised if the President nominated Summers to be Fed chair. But then, I’m surprised that he’s even seriously considering him. It’s Obama’s second term. Anything can happen.