The next Administration, whoever it may be, will feature a new direction on policies around economic and finance issues. That’s because, even if Barack Obama wins re-election, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has announced that he would leave his post. So you either get a Romney Presidency and an entirely new direction on these policies, or a second Obama term and a potential new direction. With fiscal issues sure to take prominence in 2013, this is a critical changeover.

So who’s on the Washington short list?

I’ve been going to conventions for years where “DLC!” was used as a pejorative. Now it doesn’t exist. Its ideas are featured, however, in like-minded think tanks and organizations, and throughout the Congress and the White House at the highest levels. The conservative wing of the Democratic Party managed to shed its skin without altering its policy a whit.