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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Greed and Fake News

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-23

The headline – School system will reduce lunch menus due to shutdown – evoked images of hungry children; I clicked and read: Vance County Schools’ reduced lunch menu will be one main dish, bread, two vegetables, one fruit and milk. What had been ‘reduced?’ There’d be no ice cream, no more bottled water and canned…

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A Knife and a Subpoena

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-18

All it takes to drive a horde of Democrats crazy is a Trump tweet – in the blink of an eye a mob as ruthless as Trump goes on an internet rampage breeding sound and fury, providing one more sign of politics rolling downhill. In the meantime, over in Congress, there’s a grim-faced Democrat who’s…

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Trump-World and Bernie-Land

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-17

Who’d have believed it – in the New York Times women are telling tales about how they were sexually harassed during Bernie Sanders’ campaign: One woman told how after she “complained to her supervisor” about being harassed “he laughed” and another told how “there was no one who would or could help” when she was…

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Run, everybody, run

By Gary Pearce 2019-01-16

Run, Joe, run. Run, Elizabeth, run. Run, Beto, run. Run, Kamala, run. Run, Kirsten and Julian and Cory and Amy and Donner and Blitzen, Prancer and Dancer, Bluto and Pluto and Rudolph and all the Democratic 2020 hopefuls. If Democrats make a mistake this time, it’ll damn sure be a different mistake from last time.…

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Another Gift?

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-16

Trump’s popularity is hovering around 42% which means to win another election he must have people who don’t like him vote for him. Can he pull that rabbit out of a hat? No. He needs Democrats to hand him a gift: Another opponent voters dislike more than they dislike him – like Hillary. Elizabeth Warren,…

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Words or Deeds?

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-15

He said he’d hoped Trump’s campaign would stop name calling – but it didn’t. He said that after Trump won he’d hoped he’d clean up his act – but he didn’t. And a few minutes after Mitt Romney lit into Trump the Republican world ignited with Trump tweeting and Trump’s Campaign Manager telling the newspapers,…

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Those To Whom Evil Is Done

By Carter Wrenn 2019-01-14

Call it an eye for an eye or a man (a politician) who does evil because evil was done to him – either way it’s an old tale. Russians using fake Facebook accounts to attack Hillary – that was the evil that was done; then Matt Osborne (the politician) did evil in return: During the…

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Reporting from the basement

By Gary Pearce 2019-01-14

A long-time veteran of the Legislative Building (not with the media) sent these thoughts about reporters being banished to the basement: “The dawn of a new legislative session spawned a kerfuffle about relocating the office space of the legislative press corps to an undesirable hole in the ground. Everyone’s complaining about how mean the Republicans…

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Winning message wars

By Gary Pearce 2019-01-10

Two communications innovations propelled Trump to the Presidency: reality TV and Twitter. Now three Democrats – wildly different in age and style – are pioneering the next wave. • Nancy Pelosi, 78, is the star of the Shutdown Showdown. She’s tough, stylish and sharp. She’s turned the West Wing press scrum into performance art. She…

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Trust Flies Out the Window

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-29

Planned Parenthood’s spending a ton of money – $10 million – to elect pro-abortion candidates in…

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A School Test

By Gary Pearce 2024-04-29

The Republican legislature may not vote for Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s school plan, but North Carolinians…

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Democrats’ Country Inroads

By Gary Pearce 2024-04-25

New data shows that North Carolina Democrats are right to look for votes on country roads…

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