How does Mayor Adrian Fenty feel after 100 days in office?

Happy.

Very happy.

Ecstatic about his lot in life.

“I love every aspect of my job,” he told journalists, police, and staff gathered at Barry Farms Recreation Center in Anacostia to hear the mayor report on his first 100 days.

After Fenty recounted his young administration’s accomplishments, veteran WRC-TV reporter Tom Sherwood pressed him to list at least one failure or challenge.

Fenty smiled and gave his trademark raising of the eyebrows.“

I don’t see challenges,” he said. “I see opportunities.”

Suffice it to say, there has never been a happier Washington mayor at this point in our short political history. Fenty might be the sunniest mayor in America.

When a resident asked Fenty how he felt about Washington Post columnist Colby King’s suggestion that he had not appointed enough African American officials, Fenty said: “I agree with Colby.”

Next question.

WJLA-TV reporter Sam Ford asked Fenty about complaints that he had not appointed enough people from Ward 8, in the city’s poor sections east of the Anacostia River, where he was holding the press conference.

“I agree,” Fenty said. “We have not.”

Fenty tried to move on, but Ford pressed for a better response.

“No excuses,” Fenty said. “We have to do better.”

Is the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs a mess?

“Yes,” Fenty said. “We have to be honest with you.”

Next question.

Part of Fenty’s exuberance comes from his way of handling the press. Reporters seem enthralled by his sunny disposition. Part of his good nature comes from the fact that he unabashedly likes getting up in the morning and being The Mayor.

He said he feeds off residents who give him “confident, enthusiastic support.”

Will the city’s notoriously leaky public pools be ready for summer?

Fenty said absolutely, thanks to his crackerjack recreation director.

Then Sherwood served up the tough question: Would Fenty do a cannon-ball dive into the pool to inaugurate the season?

Fenty smiled and ignored him.

Sherwood asked again. And again.

“It may not be me,” Fenty said, “but the twins”—those would be the mayor’s young sons—“might do it.”

Everyone smiled and left happy.

Harry Jaffe