The government he headed, centrist in its policies, was Italy's 32nd since the war.
But his attempts to reduce spending caused widespread public resentment and his decision to head a centrist list in the parliamentary elections attracted little more than 10% of the vote.
"Jews are being stabbed in the streets and the EU has given in to BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions]" Yair Lapid, head of centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
"Fundamentally," says Simon Rosenberg, who heads the centrist New Democrat Network, "you get the feeling that this guy could actually be a better candidate than he's presenting himself as right now".
Clinton confidante Anne Marie Slaughter, a former State Department official who now heads the centrist New America Foundation, expressed concerns in September about the globalization status quo.
Al From, head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and one of the Democratic strategists who helped Mr. Clinton frame his centrist appeal, says the election is not about searching for the anti-Clinton at all.
Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima Party and leader of the opposition, said: "Justice has been done.
Second place went to Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima Party, with 28 percent, followed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, with 9 percent.
Kahlon is now the head of a centrist party, Kulanu ("All of Us"), whose platform focusses primarily on bread-and-butter issues.
When Mr Olmert became prime minister as head of the centrist Kadima party, he brought Labour into the coalition by appointing its leader, Amir Peretz, a former trade-union boss, as defence minister.
