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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The Boy from Queens

By Carter Wrenn August 23, 2017

The threats landed bam, bam, bam: Kim Jong-un was facing ‘fire and fury,’ we were ‘locked and loaded and ready to go’ and – if Kim uttered one more threat – he’d ‘regret it fast.’ It was pure Trump pyrogenics – and melodrama – but it’s getting old: When Trump walked onto the debate stage…

A Carnival Air

By Carter Wrenn August 22, 2017

The protests just keep getting crazier: Friday morning the attorney for the eight ‘Antifa’ protestors arrested for toppling a Confederate statute in Durham tweeted: First appearances are done. White supremacists arrive at noon. Hundreds of anti-Klan counter-protestors rushed to Main Street in Durham, blocking traffic, chanting, No KKK! No Fascist USA! At five minutes past…

Have a Little Faith

By Carter Wrenn August 21, 2017

The media may be in worse shape than we thought: Most of us have never laid eyes on a Neo-Nazi and who’d ever heard of an ‘Antifa’ before last week? So, can either be a deadly threat to America? Can CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times be right when they paint a…

A Code

By Carter Wrenn August 17, 2017

President Trump wanted Mexico’s President to stop saying Mexico wouldn’t pay for the wall so he called him but when Pena Nieto came on the line he told Trump the last thing Trump wanted to hear: He said he could never agree for Mexico to pay for the wall. Trump purred, told Pena Nieto he’d…

Common Ground

By Carter Wrenn August 16, 2017

Yesterday I described how Gary and I met in 1984 (to negotiate the Helms-Hunt debates) and how I didn’t lay eyes on Gary again for eight years – until the morning he walked into the boardroom of a law firm downtown to negotiate a debate between Lauch Faircloth and Terry Sanford, saw me sitting there,…

Alt-reality

By Gary Pearce August 16, 2017

A TAPster had good advice for Trump in light of yesterday’s news conference: “It should be a basic rule of politics to not say nice things about Nazis.”

Take ‘em down

By Gary Pearce August 15, 2017

Now that even the morally obtuse Trump has been forced to say white racist terrorism is wrong, we move on to a knottier issue: Should Confederate statues and memorials stay, or should they go? Here’s a case in point. If you drive down Hillsborough Street toward the State Capitol in Raleigh, you come to a…

Bridging the Divide

By Carter Wrenn August 15, 2017

The other night Gary and I spoke at Quail Ridge Books about Hillbilly Elegy and as the two of us argued about what diseases shuttered Ohio steel mills, addicted mothers to opioids, split our country into armed camps and left white working-class voters supporting Trump a lady in the back of the room stood up…

Trump’s cowardice, GOP’s challenge

By Gary Pearce August 14, 2017

It’s not at all surprising that Trump couldn’t bring himself to condemn Nazis, Ku Kluxers and racists bent on terrorism. As with Putin, he’s reluctant to criticize those who got him elected. He was harsher on Jeff Sessions and Mitch McConnell. Trump failed the moral test of leadership. Will the rest of the Republican Party?…

Political Shots Fired

By Gary Pearce April 28, 2026

The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My…

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…