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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Romney Goes Negative – On the Voters

By Gary Pearce September 19, 2012

Mitt Romney is going to make me a sorry seer. I blog that he’s bound to come back, then he says the dumbest, most damaging and most unintentionally revealing thing I’ve heard in politics in ages.   Romney’s “47 percent” remarks hurt him on so many levels.   One, he’s wrong. I’m voting for Obama.…

John Drescher Responds

By Gary Pearce September 18, 2012

N&O Executive Editor John Drescher retweeted my blog about UNC and the N&O, but took issue with another blog, in which a TAPster criticized the N&O for dedicating much of Sunday’s front page to a “40-year-old murder mystery.”   Drescher responded:   “At the moment, today’s MacDonald story is No. 3 on the newsobserver.com most-read list (which you…

Fearless Prediction

By Gary Pearce September 18, 2012

Everything is going wrong for the Romney campaign, but one thing is certain in politics: This too shall pass. So look for the story line to change dramatically at some point before the election.   Election Day is seven weeks from today. That’s too long for the media to keep saying Romney is a terrible…

Thorp, UNC and the N&O

By Gary Pearce September 17, 2012

When I worked at the N&O eons ago, I remember seeing Bill Friday and several key aides frequently coming in to meet with then-Editor Claude Sitton and the editorial-page staff. Therein lies a lesson for UNC and Holden Thorp’s successor.   In the end (see my blog last week), Thorp concluded he couldn’t hold on.…

This Just In…

By Gary Pearce September 17, 2012

A TAPster takes an admitted “cheap shot” at the N&O:   “In the middle of a game-changing election season, the newspaper’s Sunday edition underscored its irrelevance by living in the past.   “It ran an exhausting front-page rehash of a 40-year-old murder mystery and dragged former columnist Dennis Rogers from retirement to add his dusty…

Owning Obamacare

By Gary Pearce September 15, 2012

A TAPster writes:   “Ironically, or maybe not, the talking heads at Fox News who created the term ‘Obamacare’ as a derisive term for the Healthcare Reform Act have actually done the opposite. They defined the debate in Obama’s terms and not their own. How stupid!   “Think if you are Ford Motors and BMW…

Holden On

By Gary Pearce September 14, 2012

My fellow Wolfpackers will howl, but I feel for Holden Thorp. It’s no fun being pummeled in The News & Observer day after day. Thorp must ask himself every morning: How do I get ahead of this?   A TAPster whose judgment I respect – and is a UNC alum – wrote:   “Thorp’s professional…

The Unexpected Happens

By Carter Wrenn September 13, 2012

Almost every day, sometimes a couple of times a day, someone will ask, Well, who’s going to win this election? It’s human nature: We want bedrock beneath our feet. But there is no answer to the question. Not even the handful of undecided voters have a clue how they’ll vote at the end of the…

Dalton on the Job

By Gary Pearce September 13, 2012

Walter Dalton put out a strong, thoughtful and comprehensive jobs plan this week. It was long on good ideas, but – unfortunately – short on political punch. It illustrates the challenge Democrats face in a short-attention span age.   Republicans have the virtue of brevity and simplicity, if not quality. Pat McCrory has a bumper-sticker…

Independents Turn Against GOP

By Gary Pearce March 17, 2026

North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…