WireTAP, Part III

I'm part of the discussion over at The American Prospect about the last three (and better) episodes of The Wire. Matt says:

[A]midst a much-grumbled-about season, I feel like I haven't seen sufficient grumbling about the politics subplot. Given everything we've seen portrayed about the state of Baltimore under Tommy Carcetti, why on earth would he be considered a viable gubernatorial candidate? Two years as mayor seems like a thin resume in general, and they've hardly been wildly successful, popularity-inducing years. The plot mechanics both require the Carcetti administration to be a huge mess and him to have a serious shot at going to Annapolis, but in the real world the political system's not quite that screwed up -- to get ahead you need at least superficial successes at lower levels.

Read on.