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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Another Gift?

By Carter Wrenn January 16, 2019

Trump’s popularity is hovering around 42% which means to win another election he must have people who don’t like him vote for him. Can he pull that rabbit out of a hat? No. He needs Democrats to hand him a gift: Another opponent voters dislike more than they dislike him – like Hillary. Elizabeth Warren,…

Words or Deeds?

By Carter Wrenn January 15, 2019

He said he’d hoped Trump’s campaign would stop name calling – but it didn’t. He said that after Trump won he’d hoped he’d clean up his act – but he didn’t. And a few minutes after Mitt Romney lit into Trump the Republican world ignited with Trump tweeting and Trump’s Campaign Manager telling the newspapers,…

Those To Whom Evil Is Done

By Carter Wrenn January 14, 2019

Call it an eye for an eye or a man (a politician) who does evil because evil was done to him – either way it’s an old tale. Russians using fake Facebook accounts to attack Hillary – that was the evil that was done; then Matt Osborne (the politician) did evil in return: During the…

Reporting from the basement

By Gary Pearce January 14, 2019

A long-time veteran of the Legislative Building (not with the media) sent these thoughts about reporters being banished to the basement: “The dawn of a new legislative session spawned a kerfuffle about relocating the office space of the legislative press corps to an undesirable hole in the ground. Everyone’s complaining about how mean the Republicans…

Winning message wars

By Gary Pearce January 10, 2019

Two communications innovations propelled Trump to the Presidency: reality TV and Twitter. Now three Democrats – wildly different in age and style – are pioneering the next wave. • Nancy Pelosi, 78, is the star of the Shutdown Showdown. She’s tough, stylish and sharp. She’s turned the West Wing press scrum into performance art. She…

Tear down this wall

By Gary Pearce January 7, 2019

Trump may never get his wall with Mexico, but he’s built a hell of a wall between Americans. It has bitterly divided Democrats and Republicans in Washington, it has shut down government, and it divides the American people. And it’s not even a real issue. It’s an imaginary solution to an imaginary problem. Even if…

A Disguise

By Carter Wrenn January 3, 2019

Governor Cooper explained in the newspaper he vetoed a bill because “Municipal charter schools set a dangerous precedent that could lead to taxpayer funded re-segregation.” The way the bill’s opponents see it the suburbs where the schools would be built are white (or ‘whiter’) than the rest of the schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District,…

It Doesn’t Add Up

By Carter Wrenn January 2, 2019

Almost every politician in Washington supported the Criminal Justice Reform Bill – so what are the odds all those politicians, this time, got it right? According to the newspaper 53,000 prisoners, almost a third of the inmates in federal prisons, are going to be released – which means we’re going to be closing prisons. But,…

Clichés

By Carter Wrenn December 31, 2018

At a press conference following a basketball game not long after President Bush died a reporter asked Coach Mike Krzyzewski how he’d come to know Bush and Krzyzewski explained that, years ago, after President George H. W. Bush’s 3-year-old daughter died of leukemia, Bush had set up a Cancer Foundation – and that’s how he…

Obama 48-Trump 39

By Gary Pearce April 26, 2026

A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…

“Conservative Successes”?

By Gary Pearce April 23, 2026

Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…

Rise and Fall

By Gary Pearce April 21, 2026

A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…