Photo by Edward Hoover

We’re going to play devil’s advocate here.

On Sunday, the Washington Post dramatically unveiled new polling results that found that Mayor Adrian Fenty isn’t a terribly popular guy. In fact, he’s amazingly unpopular, especially among the District’s African American voters. Since January 2008, Fenty has seen his popularity among all residents drop 30 percent, and among African Americans, the drop jumps to 39 percent. Ouch. He’s now less popular than Mayor Anthony Williams was toward the end of his final term, and Williams — long criticized for being in the pocket of real estate developers and spending more time on the road than in the city — was never much known for being a people person.

With the District’s electoral season just heating up, the poll — along with another one released late last year — seems to boost the fortunes of pretty much anyone who’s thinking of challenging Fenty, primarily D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray. At least that’s the conventional thinking.

The Post’s poll was more than just a popularity contest, though. It also found that a majority of District residents were happy with their neighborhood, supportive of the city’s police, pleased with parks and recreation centers and somewhat more confident in public schools. (Interestingly, this is one of the few points were black residents were more supportive than white residents, 40 to 32 percent, though a majority of both groups still thought the school district isn’t doing a good job.)

But this might actually be something of a blessing in disguise for Fenty. Yes, not many people like him as a person, but that he can claim that he’s delivered positive changes could well go further toward his re-election than his personality could go against it. He’s banked $3 million so far, and he’s got eight months before the Democratic primary. That’s a lot of time and a lot of money to knock on a lot of doors and convince people that while he might be arrogant and aloof, he’s also an effective manager.