The poll which revealed that Vince Gray holds a big lead on Mayor Adrian Fenty as we head into the mayoral homestretch was interesting and all. But we found that there were a couple of results in the middle of the poll which were pretty shiny happy things in and of themselves, regardless of whether you’re in the tank for Fenty, Gray, or are planning on writing in your dog on September 14. Based on the raw data, people just seem think that things are going pretty well around this place.

When asked, “Do you think things in the District of Columbia are generally going in the right direction, or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track?”, 56 percent responded “right direction,” with only 29 percent choosing “wrong direction.” That 27-point margin is the highest measured by the Post/Abt SRBI since 2000 and the second-most positive margin for this question since 1993.