President Barack Obama receives an autographed Green Bay Packers Charles Woodson jersey from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, center, and Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt upon his arrival Jan. 26 in Green Bay, Wis.

Washington ? President Barack Obama might not be able to grin and (Chicago) Bear it, but he’s throwing a Super Bowl party anyway, his beloved hometown team falling one game short of the title tilt.

Which part of today’s activities might give him the most heartburn? The Bears’ archrivals, the Green Bay Packers, fighting it out with the Pittsburgh Steelers? The Wisconsin sausage in the gift baskets carted in by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett? The pregame interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly?

Fox is televising the game, so Obama is keeping with tradition — he sat down with CBS’ Katie Couric last year and NBC’s Matt Lauer the year before.

It’s certainly not out of love for Fox. White House aides have denounced Fox as a vitriolic mouthpiece for the president’s foes. After some big fights early in the Obama presidency, the relationship with Fox has turned less contentious.

O’Reilly said he believed it “will be the most watched interview of all time.”

Despite the sometimes hard feelings, it’s hardly Obama’s first interview with Fox, and not even his first with O’Reilly. The two faced off in September 2008 when he was a candidate.

Still, the live interview this afternoon fit neatly into Obama’s theme for this year’s bash: above the fray — albeit somewhat resigned — and good fellowship. It follows his appeals to turn down the heat of political rhetoric, first after his November election “shellacking,” then after the deadly shootings last month at a Tucson, Ariz., congressional district meeting.

Hence the White House guest list — about 100 people, lawmakers and officials from both parties, and some glitz: Pennsylvania Sens. Robert Casey, a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican; Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble, a Republican who represents Green Bay; Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, one of two Republicans in the Obama Cabinet; and singers Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, the husband-wife part-owners of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

With the Bears on the sidelines, losers to the Packers in the NFC championship game, Obama has pronounced himself neutral — unlike last year, when he was “pretty sympathetic” to the New Orleans Saints, or the previous year when he rooted for the Steelers.

His neutrality is born of a die-hard fan’s pain.

Three days after the Bears’ season ended, Obama flew into Green Bay for a political speech and was promptly handed a Packers jersey and obliged to pose for pictures. He accused his hosts of “rubbing it in.”

Later, during a factory tour, while saluting the long Packers-Bears rivalry and wishing the Packers good luck, he couldn’t help adding, “We will get you next year.”

No sitting president has ever been to a Super Bowl. Obama said he’d like to go — if the Bears were in it.