I must say that this is the coldest Christmas I've ever experienced (it's averaged about 15 degrees Fahrenheit since I've been here). This year is also the closest I've ever come to celebrating a "White

Christmas." When I woke up this morning, albeit two days past Christmas Day, the ground was blanketed with a thin, yet beautiful, layer of snow; unfortunately, it had all melted away in a couple hours' time.

Jen and I will be flying back to San Francisco on Wednesday, in time to ready ourselves for the New Year's celebration, and whatever Y2K may have in store.

On a final note, isn't it funny that even though the millennium is NOT really over until NEXT year, everyone has gone millennium crazy? I suppose it makes sense. After all, it's not often that I'll get the chance to say...

See you in 2000!

-Gabe

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That's not surprising. Unlike Ronald Reagan, Pat Brown, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, Davis does not hold regular news conferences or otherwise court the press, except in very limited cases. Rather, he holds news briefings to announce a specific action, allows a limited question-answer session, then quickly disappears.

Reporters who cover the governor know him after a fashion, but it's not because of anything he has done as governor. Rather, it's because many of them covered him as an Assemblyman, controller or lieutenant governor, when Davis craved attention and went out of his way to court the press and know the reporters.

Those days are long gone.

Now, the reporters seek him out, and very few obtain meaningful time with the governor, with "meaningful time" defined as one-on-one interviews. The governor carefully preserves his distance from the press, and thus far this seems to be an effective strategy. The governor's communications operation, dramatically ineffective in comparison with his recent predecessors in terms of defining issues or explaining motives, is adept at keeping the press at bay. And this seems fine with the governor.

His public approval ratings are high, some among the national media even consider him effective and fearless, and there have been relatively few negative stories about him, even in California.

The overwhelming public perception of Davis is that he is a dull, plodding middle-of-the-roader who is effective as an executive. This perception is one that Davis appears to want to perpetuate, but is it accurate?

Partly. But Davis also is driven by ambition, and has been since his arrival in Sacramento nearly 25 years ago. He is a workaholic, a master of detail and a shrewd politician with an excellent memory. He does not appear to have a sense of loyalty that many politicians possess -- many, many fellow Democrats who supported him for years have yet to be asked to join the administration, and there is great bitterness among them because of this.

According to some, Davis is possessed of a sharp temper, but there are few reporters who have covered him over the years who have really seen it.

Rather, Davis remains a cypher, not really understood by his closest associates, much less the journalists who cover him. His second year in office is likely to bring more of the same.

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