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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Abolish Resolutions

By Gary Pearce January 5, 2010

It sounds un-American, but I’m adamantly opposed to New Year’s resolutions.   First of all, all the media stories are tiresome: How to start a new exercise routine – or a new life. How to lose 20 pounds. How to change your diet. How to run that ultra-marathon across the Sahara that you’ve always dreamed…

Burr at Year End

By Carter Wrenn January 4, 2010

Back when Lauch Faircoth was running for Senate the first time ole’ Tom Ellis launched the campaign two years before the election and he had a good reason – the first time he took a poll and looked at the political chessboard what the pieces said back to him loud and clear was Lauch was…

The New Economy

By Gary Pearce January 4, 2010

Go back 50 years in North Carolina. To 1960. The year Terry Sanford was elected governor.   Tobacco was king in North Carolina – politically and economically.   WRAL-TV started its broadcast days (after a devotional) with the Farm Report. The News & Observer had a regular farm reporter.   And the health of the…

Superdelegates Under Attack

By Gary Pearce January 2, 2010

A national Democratic Party reform that Jim Hunt pioneered nearly thirty years ago is under attack.   And state Senator Dan Blue is defending the reform.   There is some irony here. When Hunt was Governor and Blue was House Speaker in 1993-94, the two didn’t always get along. They clashed especially on Hunt’s crime…

The Decade of Obama?

By Gary Pearce January 1, 2010

The Teens may come to be Barack Obama’s decade the way the Eighties were Ronald Reagan’s decade.   Ideology aside, the two Presidents have much in common.   Both were outsiders who ran campaigns that upset conventional wisdom.   Both had lives before politics – Reagan as an actor and union leader, Obama as a…

Political Terror

By Gary Pearce December 31, 2009

Republicans – including Senator Richard Burr – couldn’t wait to blame the Obama administration for the Christmas Day terrorist scare.   In other words, to indulge in the kind of politics they called unpatriotic when Bush and Cheney were in charge.   Let’s look at some facts.   A. Burr agrees with the President that…

Bev and New Year’s Resolutions

By Gary Pearce December 31, 2009

At breakfast the other day, a friend pointed to his mocha and cinnamon-crunch bagel. “I’m doing this today because starting January 1 I’m losing 20 pounds,” he vowed.   I congratulated him. And wished him luck. That’s a hard resolution to keep; most resolvers fail.   But Governor Perdue has done it.   She recently…

Eat the Rabbits

By Carter Wrenn December 30, 2009

Sometimes folks get so carried away with their passions they just go plain crazy – and I’m not talking about Tiger Woods.   I’m talking about two Environmentalists at Victoria University.   In addition to wrestling with the problem of trying to be open-minded instead of blinded by their passion to save the planet Environmentalists…

Relatives and ‘Recusals:’ Democrat Style

By Carter Wrenn December 30, 2009

Tony Rand is Chairman of Law Enforcement Associates, and when he got accused of insider trading he told shareholders there’d be an ‘independent’ investigation – then picked his buddy Lyndo Tippett (the former Secretary of Transportation) to lead the investigation.   About the same time a lady in Florida was suing Rand’s company, saying it…

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…