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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A Sign of Weakness

By Carter Wrenn January 21, 2016

I wish just once when we do one of these prisoner exchanges the math would work out. We traded five terrorists to the Taliban for one American (Bowe Bergdhal). And traded seven Iranians for four Americans. It’s irrational but, just once, I’d like the math to be five to four in our favor. Or even…

Divided we stand

By Gary Pearce January 21, 2016

It’s not just that our nation is divided. Both parties are divided. The Democrats’ division is generational. The Republicans’ division is personal. One party’s insurgency comes from the left; the other, from the right. One is young vs. old; the other, inside vs. outside. Both come from a deep well of fear and loathing about…

A Nasty Guy?

By Carter Wrenn January 20, 2016

“He’s a nasty guy. A very nasty guy.” Donald Trump was talking about Ted Cruz and with the same uncanny instinct that unmanned Jeb Bush with two words (“low-energy”) he’d put his finger on Cruz’s Achilles heel. In many ways Ted Cruz looks like the archetype of a candidate who should win a Republican Primary:…

Birther Karma

By Gary Pearce January 20, 2016

The constitutional question about whether Ted Cruz is a “natural-born” citizen is as good a reason as any to deny him the White House. If we want a President from Canada, let’s get Justin Trudeau. The issue is sweet confirmation of the Universal Law of Payback. How many Cruz supporters were “birthers” who questioned President…

The Reaction

By Carter Wrenn January 19, 2016

A girl who thinks she’s a boy asked to use the boys’ bathroom at her high school. The principal allowed her to use a staff bathroom instead. Then a boy who thinks he’s a girl circulated an internet petition saying the principal was wrong. And it landed, beneath a picture of the two teenagers, on…

He’s baaaaack!

By Gary Pearce January 18, 2016

Long before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, a lot of people in Raleigh didn’t like John Edwards. Like insurance executives, defense lawyers and doctors, to be exact. They took great delight in Edwards’ fall from political grace. Schadenfreude is the word for it: “a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing…

Obama Redux

By Gary Pearce January 15, 2016

Franklin D. Roosevelt said the Presidency “is preeminently a place of moral leadership.” President Obama’s State of the Union met that standard. The President channeled FDR, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan all in his speech. He rose above the usual political theater than these speeches have become. He set out an optimistic vision of…

Womb Police

By Gary Pearce January 12, 2016

Republicans are right: Our freedoms and liberties are at risk from an overly intrusive, overreaching government. Like the Republican-controlled government in North Carolina that requires doctors who perform an abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy to send an ultrasound to state officials. That’s kind of creepy, when you think about it. Are the DHHS…

Saint Barbara

By Gary Pearce January 11, 2016

Barbara Buchanan deserved the Nobel Prize for Patience. For 20 years, she lived at the center of the F5 tornado that was Jim Hunt. The remarkable thing: I never once saw her lose her temper. From Hunt’s 1972 campaign for Lieutenant Governor, through four years in that office, through eight years in the Governor’s Office,…

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…