Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With California Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Kathleen Brown

The President. Let me say first it's a pleasure for me to have Kathleen Brown here in the White House, to have an opportunity to talk about the many issues and challenges facing California, what we can do to work on them together. I want to congratulate her on her win in the primary, and I look forward to working with her.

California Gubernatorial Campaign

Q. Are you planning to campaign for Ms. Brown?

The President. If she asks me to, I will. That's up to her.

Ms. Brown. I'm asking. I'm asking. [Laughter] Come ride our bus.

The President. I'm in California a lot, you know, and I expect to be back a lot. And I'm encouraged by the signs that our economic program is beginning to take hold in California. I'm encouraged by the very rapid work that was done to get the investments into southern California after the quake. I'm encouraged by a lot of the work that's being done in defense conversion in California. And I'm encouraged by the increasing exports coming out of California and going into the rest of the world. But there's still an awful lot to be done, so I expect to be there quite a lot.

World Cup Soccer

Q. What about the World Cup?

The President. I'm elated, aren't you? That's right, the United States won in California. It's great. I'm so excited about it. I went to the opening game in Chicago, you know, between Germany and Bolivia. And my daughter got me interested in soccer years ago, but I'm about to get totally hooked.

I like this American team. You know, it reminds me of my campaign: They're kind of the underdogs, and they're coming on, and I'm really very hopeful for them now.