Obama gets Super Bowl winner right

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Score one for U.S. President Barack Obama, who correctly picked Pittsburgh as the winner of Super Bowl XLIII Sunday.

Interviewed during NBC's pre-game coverage, Obama predicted a "close" Steelers victory over the Arizona Cardinals. It turned out he was right as Pittsburgh pulled out a 27-23 win.

"'The Steelers are going to eke it out in a close one," Obama told the "Today" show's Matt Lauer. The president said the personal stories of Arizona's quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald were wonderful, but he had a personal tie to the Pittsburgh team.

Team owners, the Rooney family, supported him during the campaign, and Steeler great "Franco Harris was waving terrible towels at my rallies."

Asked about terror evaluations in his daily briefings, Obama said, "We've got real threats, and we have to remain vigilant. But the quality of armed forces have never been better. … There is no doubt that we can never let up, because there are people who would do us harm."

On the economy, the president said the United States would have to go through months of downturn before an economic turn-around, and Republican ideas would be incorporated into a pork-free stimulus package. He said troops watching this year's Super Bowl from Iraq should be able to watch next year's from home.

Speaking in his shirt sleeves in the Map Room of the White House, Obama said it was good to work from a home office with his family, even his mother-in-law, in residence.

"Fortunately I love my mother-in-law. She defends me when I'm about to screw up" with first lady Michelle, Obama said. As for his daughters: "People think I'm cool. Nobody's cooler than my two girls. They just take whatever comes. ... They're loving school, they're making friends ... what more could I want?"