President Obama Interviews 'The Wire' Creator David Simon

This, officially, is the coolest thing to happen in the land of The Wire since that talking Clay Davis bobblehead became a reality via Kickstarter: Barack Obama, POTUS and proud fan of The Wire, invited series creator David Simon to the White House to chat with him about criminal justice reform.

Lest you think this was just the President’s attempt to get Simon in the House to geek out about the HBO drama, not so. Simon, in addition to creating the series that covered everything from failing school systems and journalism to politics and criminal reform, was a Baltimore Sun reporter on the crime beat, and wrote the books The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (which was adapted as the HBO miniseries of the same name) and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which inspired both the NBC drama Homicide and The Wire.

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During the interview, seen in the video above, Obama and Simon discuss how law enforcement efforts to focus on arresting everyone involved with drug offenses, even non-violent offenders, didn’t prove to be an effective way to deal with the problem, and in fact, left people feeling less safe, and ignored the bigger issues.

And yes, the President does also let his fanboy freak flag fly, telling Simon The Wire, is “one of the greatest not just television shows, but pieces of art in the last couple of decades,” and confirming that Michael K. Williams’s Omar was his favorite character.

Ditto, POTUS.