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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Pat’s Hot Summer

By Gary Pearce August 23, 2013

Governor McCrory is having a bad summer. He probably thought life would be better with the legislature gone. But that just put the heat right on him. And he doesn’t look like he’s having fun.   People in the know say the Governor is sensitive about his media coverage. If that’s so,his blood pressure must…

Democratic Morale

By Carter Wrenn August 22, 2013

Last Thursday a tiny cloud appeared on the horizon, and instead of dissipating, by Friday it was hovering right over Governor Pat McCrory’s head.   If you want to see how Democrats’ morale is fairing, just read Gary’s or Thomas Mills’ commentaries. This week they’re happy folks.   Because last week Governor McCrory said it…

Good Night Ann

By Gary Pearce August 22, 2013

Why do Republicans feel compelled to insult, dismiss and condescend to women in North Carolina?   The latest: Governor McCrory dismissing Ann Goodnight’s pointed and powerful letter to the N&O (reprinted in full at the end of this blog).   The Governor sniffed at the letter to Al Hunt of Bloomberg News: “Ms. Goodnight, he…

Woe is Wos

By Gary Pearce August 21, 2013

Last week, “a bodyguard prevented a News & Observer reporter from asking (DHHS Secretary Aldona) Wos any questions” after a speech.   This week, when questions arose about DHHS paying $85,000-plus salaries to young campaign aides to Governor McCrory, “the governor’s spokeswoman, Kim Genardo, referred questions” to Wos. “Wos could not be reached.”   Hold…

Back to the Dark Ages

By Carter Wrenn August 20, 2013

It’s a bleak landscape.   A nightmare vision of a counter-revolution roaring down the tracks, turning back the hands of the clock, rolling back progress to the days before indoor plumbing, air-conditioning, and daylight savings time. Republicans, Reverend William Barber howls, are turning back the clock to the days of Jim Crow.   Republican tax…

The ‘Voting Rights’ Foo-Fa

By Carter Wrenn August 19, 2013

This isn’t a story of sin begetting sin but of foolishness begetting foolishness.   Years ago, somewhere, some Democratic political guru sat in a room with reams of demographics of people who never had voted and when he finished studying those pages of statistics one fact was clear as a bell: If those folks started…

A Major League Blunder

By Gary Pearce August 19, 2013

Governor McCrory increasingly looks like a modest Triple-A ballplayer who is befuddled by big league pitching. His latest whiff is defending the DHHS salary debacle.   McCrory should have put as much distance as possible between himself and the decision to give 24-year-olds who worked in his campaign senior jobs paying $85,000 and $87,500 in…

Newt Nails It

By Gary Pearce August 19, 2013

Yes, Newt Gingrich is nuts. But sometimes even a nut sees reality. And last week he summed up why the Republican Party is on the road to disaster:   “We are caught up right now in a culture – and you see it every single day – where as long as we are negative, as…

War on Teachers Update

By Gary Pearce August 16, 2013

Governor McCrory believes it’s OK to pay a beginning teacher $25,000, but $65,000 isn’t enough for a 24-year-old state government appointee who worked in McCrory’s campaign. So he got a raise to $87,500.   That’s three times what a starting teacher gets in North Carolina.   Another campaign staffer got a $23,000 raise to $85,000,…

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…