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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Sound Bites: Putting the Shoe on the Other Foot

By Carter Wrenn May 5, 2008

One reader has taken me to task, accusing me of ‘defending’ Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Anonymous (which is fine) wrote about my post Sound Bites versus Reality: Carter, before you act as a knee jerk apologist for Wright and Obama, you may want to look at that church’s website, which bases its “theology” on a black…

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Will We Unite?

By Gary Pearce May 5, 2008

Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was the biggest ever in North Carolina. And the most divided. When the Governor gets booed, you know feelings run high. It’s like those state Republican conventions back in the 1970s when the moderates and the Jessecrats were at war. Can the split be healed by November? My guess is that it…

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It’s All About Race

By Gary Pearce May 2, 2008

Jeremiah Wright has Swift-boated Barack Obama. Obama’s boat may not be sinking, but he will be foundering if Hillary wins Indiana and keeps it close in North Carolina. The North Carolina Democrats who support Clinton deny her campaign is about race. They (or, at least, most of them) sincerely don’t want it to be about…

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Sound Bite Versus Reality

By Carter Wrenn May 1, 2008

Since the Trojan Horse the divergence between appearance versus reality has been a motif in literature. The beast turns out to be a prince. The three witches tell Macbeth he’s safe until Birnham Wood moves to Dunsaine Hill. Which appears impossible. But happens. Today it could be Sound Bite versus Reality. And Reverend Jeremiah Wright…

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Hunt Torpedoes Moore

By Carter Wrenn April 30, 2008

When WRAL asked former Governor Jim Hunt about this year’s Democratic governor’s race it was like old times. Hunt opined about the virtues of positive campaigning: Candidates ought to say what they’d do. What they stand for. How they’d move North Carolina forward. (It was like a flashback to thirty years ago.) Then the governor…

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Corporate America Under Fire

By Carter Wrenn April 30, 2008

Wachovia Bank just agreed to pay $144 million to settle a fraud case. (According to the newspapers it was alleged they allowed telemarketers to use Wachovia accounts to steal millions of dollars.) The bank did not plead guilty or admit guilt, which, in itself, is a commentary on our legal system. How can anyone agree…

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Race Cards

By Gary Pearce April 30, 2008

Talk about being the center of the political universe. North Carolina was it Tuesday. Barack Obama’s press conference on Jeremiah Wright could turn out to be the pivotal event of the presidential campaign. Unfortunately, that event – and two others the same day – was all about the issue that forever taints our politics: race.…

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Moore’s Klan Bomb

By Gary Pearce April 29, 2008

Richard Moore needs a bomb to blow up Bev Perdue’s lead. But the problem with a bomb is that it can go off in your hands. That appears to be what happened with his Ku Klux Klan ad. The ad was a reach to start with. When voters hear, in effect, that Perdue voted with…

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Two Predictions

By Gary Pearce April 28, 2008

I’ll make two predictions about this election. One I’m sure about; the other, not so much. Not Sure: This could be a change election like 1960, 1968, 1980 or 1994 – with the impact felt for decades. Sure: The Democratic Party is growing increasingly anti-corporate. Only one thing can keep 2008 from being a watershed:…

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Anything Goes…

By Carter Wrenn February 26, 2025

Back when Rod Blagojevich ran for governor of Illinois, Obama endorsed him and Trump gave his…

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Does This Work?

By Gary Pearce February 23, 2025

Does a message about “workers,” “working families” and “working-class voters” really work for Democrats? Or does…

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Out of Touch

By Gary Pearce February 20, 2025

I’ve resisted the temptation to rail every day about Trump’s cruelty, corruption and incompetence – and…

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