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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Editorial Boards

By Gary Pearce May 23, 2011

The CIA has water-boarding. The N&O has editorial-boarding.   I sat in on an N&O editorial board meeting Wednesday that starred Dr. Bill Atkinson from WakeMed (full disclosure: my client) and Dr. Bill Roper from UNC Health Care.   I felt like I was back in a campaign debate.   The N&O story stressed the…

Three Egyptian Mobs

By Carter Wrenn May 20, 2011

The first Egyptian mob chanting and demonstrating a month ago on CNN was out to get rid of Hosni Mubarak and President Obama, figuring the mob was a sign of a ‘fledgling new Democracy’ being born in front of his eyes, gave Mubarak a shove.   The second Egyptian mob about a week ago wanted…

A River in Egypt

By Carter Wrenn May 20, 2011

Like the British Empire before us and the Roman Empire before them we’ve been living high on the hog for so long it’s hard to imagine the good times ending.   But, right now, there are a fair amount of economic prognosticators who say our current Recession isn’t a hiccup or another one of our…

Birthday Blooper

By Gary Pearce May 20, 2011

I take great pride in my fact-checking, proofreading and copy-editing. After all, my first grown-up job at the N&O was as a copy editor. (I started out as a copyboy, which is newsroom-speak for errand boy.)   And I had taken great pride that, since its publication in November, no one had found a typo…

Back Benchers…

By Carter Wrenn May 19, 2011

There’s a story floating around the legislature: A couple of weeks ago when the House budget writers sent their budget over to the Senate Leadership the minute Senator Richard Steven’s saw it he saw red.   Stevens, the rumor says, erupted over how much the House was cutting UNC’s budget and grabbed Speaker Thom Tillis…

Closing the Post Office

By Carter Wrenn May 19, 2011

Congress is in debt up to its eyeballs and if the government isn’t quite flat-broke it’s just a couple of steps from being flat-broke but it looks like most Americans (and almost all Congressmen) have gotten so addicted to spending it puts Charlie Sheen on a bender to shame.   Take the latest flap here…

Afraid of the Voters

By Gary Pearce May 19, 2011

It’s revealing when politicians – specifically, Republican legislators – clearly believe they are better off when fewer people vote.   That’s the conclusion you have to draw from their efforts to suppress early voting in North Carolina. (See Jim Morrill’s story in the Charlotte O and N&O.)   Actually, the Republicans are right. The GOP…

Maureen Dowd Dancing in the Streets

By Carter Wrenn May 18, 2011

Maureen Dowd the doyen of liberal columnists, the epitome of kindhearted tolerance, emoting sensitivity from her fingertips, let out a screech like a loon the other day – howling about anyone who dared to criticize the demonstrators dancing in the streets celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death, roaring like an enraged Cassandra, “I don’t want closure.…

Loophole Closing

By Carter Wrenn May 18, 2011

I said: Who ever heard of Republicans saying increasing fees $150 million isn’t a tax?                                       And the former legislator sitting across the table said: You missed the real tax increase.   I blinked: Come again?   It turns out for years private colleges – like Campbell and Queens and Peace and Meredith – haven’t…

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…