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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Is That All There Is?

By Carter Wrenn April 24, 2017

This is a great bill, he said. There’s a great plan… the plan gets better and better and better, and it has gotten really, really, really good. It was like listening to a high-school boy urging a girl to go to the prom with him: This will be great. Really great. It just gets better…

Clinton shattered

By Gary Pearce April 21, 2017

A new now-it-can-be-told book performs the requisite autopsy on why Hillary Clinton lost. Judging by the reviews, “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign” is the kind of political porn we junkies eat up. No doubt it’s filled with delicious dirt dished out by dueling staffers exacting revenge and blaming each other. Yum! It’s a first stab…

Looking Over His Shoulder

By Carter Wrenn April 20, 2017

Watching Sean Hannity’s like watching a celebrity say the same thing over and over – it wears out quickly. But somehow, Bill O’Reilly wasn’t hum-drum – he had a knack for entertainment. So, did O’Reilly’s sins catch up with him? Fox News says Yes. He’s guilty and gone. O’Reilly says not so – that the…

Bannon’s fall = Democrats’ opening

By Gary Pearce April 17, 2017

It’s good that Steve Bannon has been eclipsed in the court of the Sun King. By all accounts, he’s a hate-spewing, fear-mongering, immigrant-bashing, Muslim-banning, dark force. But Bannon did have one important insight into today’s politics. And Democrats should take heed of it. Bannon has a clear focus on the anger that millions of Americans…

Rx: the Democrats

By Gary Pearce April 13, 2017

Second of two parts More than 25 years ago, a little-known college president was running what looked like a hopeless U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. He was Harris Wofford, a Democrat. He was running against Richard Thornburgh, a former Governor and United States Attorney General. Wofford’s own polls showed him 40 points behind. Thornburgh had…

Rx: the Republicans

By Gary Pearce April 12, 2017

First of two parts Since Obamacare passed in 2009, Republicans have attacked it. For eight years, they called it a “job killer” and a “disaster” that created “death panels.” Through four election campaigns – 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 – they promised to repeal it. And replace it with something better, cheaper and, as Comrade…

Hillbilly Elegy

By Carter Wrenn April 11, 2017

Gary told me, Read Hillbilly Elegy – it’ll make you see things you’ve been staring at for years in a different light. The story – a memoir – starts when a pregnant thirteen-year-old girl marries a sixteen-year-old boy and moves from Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains to Middleton, Ohio in the late 1940’s. He went to work…

Save us, Ivanka

By Gary Pearce April 10, 2017

Things have come to a pretty pass. We’re reduced to hoping that Ivanka and Jared can save us. Now we see why Czar Putin wanted Comrade Trump to be President. He figured it’s the best way to cripple America. Three months in, Trump’s administration has shown us almost nothing but incompetence and infighting. Incompetence is great…

A Welter of Echoes

By Carter Wrenn April 10, 2017

Each roar lasts a second. But the echoes last days. Mexico wins. We lose. China wins. We lose. Wall Street wins. We lose. Washington Politicians win. We lose. Each had mantra-like precision. Each echoed across twitter, cable news, and newspaper headlines. Once, when Obamacare repeal failed, two mantras collided head-on. The President tweeted: The Democrats…

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…