That was kind of my point, there are those who are inevitably chewed up in the political system, and there are those who do the chewing. Though saying that all involved in politics, as nath said, are ultimately playing the game may be true. Saying that Carcetti is narscissic because he looked at himself in the mirror or ignored his wife for watching his speech on tv once may seem correct, but I think in this case the direction of the show is to depict how the character is sloooowly chewed up by the system, and more importantly those around him. While Carcetti is put through the ringer by the system he constantly fights good and evil, but ultimately succumbs to the system because the evil influences are too strong. I think its easy to set in the surface motifs of the wire but not all are cause-effect. When I'm not posting from my phone ill try to elaborate more.

A point I've heard made elsewhere-- and one reason for Carcetti's success with the voters-- is that, on a certain level, he is sincere. He really does believe in what he's saying about reform and helping people, when he says it. He just isn't prepared to face the ugly reality of what doing the things he says he'll do means, and he certainly isn't willing to sacrifice his career ambitions to do the right thing.

I get the sense that Royce was once the same idealistic politician with good intentions long before we see him resorting to wearing African colors in the desperate hope of courting every last vote he can get. The sincere conversation the two have once the election results are decided is a revealing one.

The parallels with stances on crime rate, building developments ("**** you for tearing down the port of Baltimore"-Nicky Sobotka) and even the affairs are all there. Yet another example of how the show relentlessly drives home the same theme over and over again.