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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The Obama Enigma

By Gary Pearce October 19, 2010

D.G. Martin was interviewing Carter and me for “Who’s Talking” on WCHL radio when we began discussing the topic that soon will dominate political debate: WOWW – Where Obama Went Wrong.   Was it the policy or the politics (see “Blaming the Messenger” below)? Was it the economy? Was in getting in bed with Congress?…

Early Warning

By Gary Pearce October 18, 2010

There’s only one way Democrats can interpret the early results from early voting in North Carolina: It’s bad.   According to Democracy North Carolina, “one-stop early voting is off to a record-shattering pace for midterm elections and the largest group casting ballots are white Republican men.”   Another way to look at it: So far,…

Blame the Editor

By Carter Wrenn October 18, 2010

Here’s a caricature of how government works North Carolina style:   The Chairman of the Wildlife Commission, who naturally got his job by giving money to Governor Perdue, orders the Commission’s CEO to write a nice article about the Governor and publish it in the next edition of their magazine and mail it out to hunters…

Blaming the Messenger

By Gary Pearce October 18, 2010

I feel Robert Gibbs’ pain.   In a New York Times magazine article Sunday, President Obama said, “We probably spent too much time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right.”   Gibbs, the White House press secretary, noted ruefully in the article, “I haven’t been at a policy-problem meeting…

How the Government Really Works: A Train Wreck IV

By Carter Wrenn October 15, 2010

The Rest Home lobby must have one of the most powerful – or lucky – lobbies in North Carolina.   A few years ago, Congress passed a bill to give states the flexibility to care for elderly Medicaid patients in their homes instead of in Rest Homes and almost every state jumped at the opportunity…

Shameless Self-Promotion

By Gary Pearce October 15, 2010

Rick Martinez, news director with WPTF radio (680AM), taped an interview with me this week about my biography of Governor Jim Hunt. It airs on Carolina Newsmaker Sunday at 7 am (which he said is one of their highest-rated shows.  Go figure).   I confess I had some reservations before the interview. I had never…

Good News

By Gary Pearce October 14, 2010

Things are looking up for us news hawks.   These days, I have to read my favorite daily newspaper very s-l-o-w-l-y to make it last through breakfast.   But as soon as I turn on my computer, I have two new websites to go to for more political fodder: M2M Politics (“Covering North Carolina Politics…

Who’s the ‘Fruit Loop’?

By Gary Pearce October 13, 2010

What’s with this Republican obsession with gays?   There’s state Rep. Larry Brown, who emailed legislators about “queers” and “fruit loops.”   There’s Carl Paladino, the GOP candidate for governor in New York, who makes Brown look charitable. And there were all the gay slurs in the last race for North Carolina Republican Party chair. …

Desert Crosses, Crusaders’ Flags and Nose Piercing

By Carter Wrenn October 12, 2010

Back in 1934 for reasons no one has explained the Veterans of Foreign Wars decided to build a sole wooden cross – as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I – in the Mohave Desert, where hardly a soul would see it.   The cross stood peacefully atop Sunrise Rock for six…

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…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…