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.

CarterWrenn200x271

Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

Archives

Categories

A Quirk of Human Nature

By Carter Wrenn July 10, 2013

The other morning there was a picture on the front page of the News and Observer of a hundred angry women, every one of them mad as blazes, carrying signs, shaking fists and chanting, ‘Shame, shame, shame’ at Republican Senators who’d just passed a new abortion bill (that required abortion centers to meet the same…

Read More

Branding Politics

By Gary Pearce July 10, 2013

“Employers must go where employees want to be” – Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.   Raleigh City Councilman Randy Stagner quoted that line this week. It sums up the challenge that Raleigh and all North Carolina face today under the state’s new management.   Rob Christensen captured it in his strikingly strong column Sunday: “North…

Read More

Hard Day

By Carter Wrenn July 10, 2013

Monday was a hard day for Reverend William Barber.   For months, Reverend Barber has been leading ‘crusades’ for the poor, the needy, against racism, and against Republicanism.   But Monday, the Civitas Institute put a dent in his image – it reported the groups sponsoring Reverend Barber’s ‘Moral Monday’ protests have received over $100…

Read More

Trading Punches

By Carter Wrenn July 9, 2013

When Reverend William Barber steps up to a microphone wearing his vestments and clerical collar and lets fly with a haymaker calling Republicans immoral or characterizing Republican legislators as George Wallaces who want to turn back the clock to the days of Jim Crow – it’s just natural some Republican’s going to feel an itch…

Read More

A Tribute to Modern Politics

By Carter Wrenn July 9, 2013

Up in Virginia they’re locked into a donnybrook of a Governor’s race – the Republican candidate’s saying the Democratic candidate’s a hypocrite and a poor family man and a threat to every woman in Virginia (because of something he said about abortion clinics).   The Democrat’s wife is saying she’s fed up with the Republicans…

Read More

Where Do You Stand, Pat?

By Gary Pearce July 9, 2013

Governor McCrory’s waffling on the abortion bill recalls the old mountaineer who listened to a slick politician give a long-winded, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand answer to a tough issue. Finally, the mountaineer demanded: “Son, are you fer it or agin’ it?”   McCrory shouldn’t kid himself that he can pass off the bill as protecting women’s health.…

Read More

Shooting the Reasonable Fellow

By Carter Wrenn July 8, 2013

Colon Willoughby, the District Attorney, is catching it from all sides.   Faced with the chore of prosecuting hundreds of ‘Moral Monday’ demonstrators, Willoughby suggested to the protestors they were wreaking more havoc on the Wake County Courts than on Republicans and politely suggested maybe they ought to reconsider the virtues of getting themselves arrested…

Read More

Hagan for Governor

By Gary Pearce July 8, 2013

A TAPster offers an intriguing strategy for Democrats:   “Kay Hagan should run for governor.   “She should forget the US Senate, where nothing ever happens and there’s little chance to help her fellow North Carolinians, and come home. She can beat Pat McCrory, especially if his leadership continues to be weak or he is…

Read More

Hillary Reagan Clinton

By Gary Pearce July 7, 2013

In a sure sign of how much they fear her, Republicans suggest that Hillary Clinton would be too old – 69 in 2016 – to be President.   (Hey, 69 isn’t so old!)   “She’s been around since the ’70s,” one Republican operative said. Another: It would be “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls’.”  …

Read More

Does This Work?

By Gary Pearce February 23, 2025

Does a message about “workers,” “working families” and “working-class voters” really work for Democrats? Or does…

Read More

Out of Touch

By Gary Pearce February 20, 2025

I’ve resisted the temptation to rail every day about Trump’s cruelty, corruption and incompetence – and…

Read More

Jeanette Hyde

By Gary Pearce February 14, 2025

Jeanette Hyde went from Miss Yadkin County to Madam Ambassador. Hyde, who died Monday at age…

Read More