Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

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Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

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Political imports from Russia, the UK and France

By Gary Pearce June 13, 2017

Three overseas political stories either could, should or shouldn’t have an impact on American politics. Russia Trump & Co. are so set on smearing Comey, Democrats are so set on impeaching Trump and Republicans are so set on saving their skins that the Big Story from Comey’s hearing whizzed right past us. The Russians did…

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Trump’s (non)voters and Democrats’ (non)message

By Gary Pearce June 7, 2017

Two good political reads bust up two big political “truths”: (1) white working class voters elected Trump, and (2) Trump’s negatives will be enough to elect Democrats. Trump’s non(voters) Nicholas Carnes, an assistant professor of public policy at Duke University’s Sanford School, co-authored “It’s time to bust the myth: Most Trump voters were not working…

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It’s Not an Earthquake

By Carter Wrenn June 7, 2017

It’s easy to agree with Donald Trump on trade and spending cuts but then his lips move and the same man who said, I get bigger crowds than Beyoncé, and, Trump University gets an ‘A’ rating from the Better Business Bureau, says, The FBI investigation is a witch hunt. Without honesty trust withers and without…

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The Grab’s Still On

By Carter Wrenn June 6, 2017

It’s an incurable vice: Railroad tycoons did it in the Gilded Age and over a century later Wall Street bankers did it, reaching into the government treasury to bail out their bad loans (with other people’s money) and the ‘grabbers’ don’t always live on Wall Street. Take fringe benefits. For government employees. Right now a…

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Another Election, Anyone?

By Carter Wrenn June 5, 2017

Sometimes it takes a while but the chickens always come home to roost and, more often than not, they come home at the worst possible time. Six years ago, when Republican legislators drew the new state House and Senate districts, they had a simple theory: They believed the Voting Rights Act required them to create…

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Hold your horses

By Gary Pearce June 3, 2017

As my old friend J.P. used to say, “People even got tired of The Andy Griffith Show eventually.” So it is with the Trump Presidency. Understandably, Democrats want him out of the White House. Now! Today! His recklessness and willful ignorance are frightening. But the more Democrats rail and rant and rave, the more Trump’s…

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A Novel Kind of Diplomacy

By Carter Wrenn June 2, 2017

The President rapped the Germans, Angela Merkel rapped back, and the President unsheathed a new type of diplomacy – he tweeted. NATO’s the key to the West’s alliance against Russia, and Germany – after the United States – is the biggest nation in NATO and the President’s having a twitter spat with the Germans. It’s…

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Why the polls were wrong

By Gary Pearce June 2, 2017

Nate Cohn of The New York Times Upshot column has an eye-opening analysis of why so many state-level polls were wrong about Trump and Clinton last year. More on that later. But bad polls aren’t to blame for Hillary Clinton’s loss. Because her campaign didn’t do polls. That’s the most shattering revelation in a new…

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Since Jim Hunt

By Carter Wrenn June 1, 2017

Democrats don’t have a more determined foe than the Civitas Institute, so when Civitas’ May poll reported good news for Roy Cooper it was a bad sign. According to Civitas’ poll 61% of the voters in North Carolina now approve of the job Roy Cooper is doing as Governor. Among all voters Cooper’s job approval…

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The View from Iceland

By Gary Pearce November 18, 2024

If you seek political asylum the next four years, try Iceland. We went there last week…

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Recessional

By Carter Wrenn November 11, 2024

The tumult and the shouting dies; The Captains and the Kings depart: Still stands Thine ancient…

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Mistakes and Miss-Takes

By Gary Pearce November 10, 2024

Bert Bennett of Winston-Salem, the legendary political godfather to Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt, had a…

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