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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Sleep

By Carter Wrenn March 28, 2018

These days the press will hyper-ventilate and have a bout of hysteria over a tweet — but what did it do when Vladimir Putin said Russia now has a super-missile that flies at 20 times the speed of sound that no missile defense can stop? There was barely a tremor. Putin’s bragging he has a…

Rebel Fell

By Gary Pearce March 27, 2018

As North Carolina debates the fate of Confederate monuments, ponder this perspective from Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, on why he pushed successfully to remove four Confederate monuments in his city. In “What I learned from my fight to remove Confederate monuments,” Landrieu (a potential Democratic presidential candidate) wrote: “The statues were not…

A Parade

By Carter Wrenn March 27, 2018

A couple of weeks ago, after the school shooting in Florida, WRAL TV climbed up onto the biggest soapbox around and demanded every North Carolina Republican Congressman support banning the AR-15 rifle. Now the AR-15 looks just like the army’s M-16 but, in fact, it’s not an automatic rifle. Like hundreds of other rifles, it’s…

Trump’s trysts and twists

By Gary Pearce March 26, 2018

Which is worse – that Trump hopped in bed with Stormy or that he’s still in bed with Putin? Stormy and Putin have a lot in common. Both show off their chests. Both stories involve thugs. Both might involve illegal campaign activities. And Trump hasn’t said a bad word about either Stormy or Putin. Stormy’s…

The World’s on Fire

By Carter Wrenn March 26, 2018

A candidate set out to build a database to see who was going to vote in his Republican primary – and what he learned surprised him: He found only 10% of the people had voted in the last off-year (2014) Republican primary. In addition, he discovered a second group of people who had occasionally voted…

Starting Fires

By Carter Wrenn March 23, 2018

When Sam Nunberg told a CNN reporter that he wasn’t about to obey Robert Mueller’s subpoena, in the blink of an eye, he became a star on cable TV and Twitter. But, of course, complying with subpoenas isn’t optional. Nunberg was just an awkward, unhappy, vexed soul bemoaning his fate to reporters. He wasn’t a…

Infection?

By Carter Wrenn March 22, 2018

It was the kind of thing district attorneys do all the time: Robert Mueller was fishing. He subpoenaed Trump and Company for all the documents they had that mentioned nine of Trump’s associates. But on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd,  erupting, reported because of the subpoena, “Sources say the President is ‘unglued’ as chaos plagues…

Walking Around in a Fog

By Carter Wrenn March 21, 2018

In the blink of an eye, CNN, pouncing, announced the real reason Hope Hicks had resigned – it reported after Trump had read she said she’d told ‘little white lies’ for him, he’d berated her, asking, How could you be so stupid? CBS had it’s own theory: It reported that a titanic power struggle was…

People, not politics

By Gary Pearce March 20, 2018

To paraphrase JFK, defeat is an orphan and victory has a thousand theorists. A thousand theories bloomed after Conor Lamb won in Pennsylvania last week. Democrats say, “There’s a 20-point anti-Trump wave. Just think of all the places we’ll win!” Or, “Lamb won because he ran away from Nancy Pelosi.” Or, “he won because he…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…