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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Government Perdue Style

By Carter Wrenn February 19, 2010

Last summer, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler, told the legislature there were fifteen thousand senior citizens cheating Medicaid by getting Home Care even though they were healthy.   So the legislators told Cansler, Alright. Hire doctors, examine the patients, and get the ones who aren’t sick off Medicaid.  …

Just Wondering…

By Gary Pearce February 19, 2010

How long it took some nut on Fox News to blame President Obama, “socialist” Democrats, the IRS and big government for driving the Texas kamikaze pilot over the edge.

Tiger Tees Off

By Gary Pearce February 19, 2010

The toughest shot in golf is the drive off the first tee with a crowd watching.   So I thought Tiger’s first shot off the public tee was a good one.   All the self-styled PR experts will keep promoting themselves by critiquing his performance and offering their invaluable observations.   But my son James…

Terry Sanford…Reincarnated?

By Carter Wrenn February 18, 2010

It’s frightening how Cal Cunningham, the Democrat’s new boy-wonder, has begun to remind me of John Edwards. Just look at Cunningham’s picture in Wikipedia. It’s eerie. The same impish grin. The same hair. And Cunningham, like Edwards, is a candidate straight out of central casting: He steps onto the stage, opens a script and starts…

Overplayed

By Gary Pearce February 18, 2010

Since when does an obviously political and apparently unsupported charge by the state Republican Party chairman rate a screaming, streaming headline across Page B1 in The News & Observer?   The third graf of the story said:   ‘The head of the state elections board said Wednesday that officials are reviewing how all gubernatorial campaigns…

Dem’s Blues

By Gary Pearce February 17, 2010

Politico has an excellent overview of what’s happening to once-Republican states that went Democratic in 2008 – including North Carolina.   One reason it’s excellent, of course, is that it quotes me.  Click here to read the analysis.    

High Heels

By Carter Wrenn February 17, 2010

Maybe I’ve got this wrong but it seems like for years state government was bumbling and fumbling, but basically – except for the occasional road building scandal – honest. Now, times have changed. State government is still bumbling but its also learned chicanery and sleight of hand.   Follow this story from the newspaper the…

Erskine to the Rescue

By Gary Pearce February 17, 2010

Can Erskine Bowles save America? Can history repeat itself?   I was about halfway through the book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President, by Taylor Branch, when I heard that President Obama will name Erskine and another Great Compromiser, former Senator Alan Simpson, to lead a national commission on the budget deficit.  …

Putty in Her Hands

By Carter Wrenn February 16, 2010

Last summer, Governor Perdue promised legislators huge spending cuts in Medicaid if they’d let her pass out $250 million in no bid contracts – which she said would bring cost saving efficiencies.   They did. She did. But no savings materialized.   Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services is $250 million over budget.…

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…