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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Ad Wars. Tuition?

By Gary Pearce March 27, 2008

What Hillary Clinton called the “fun part” has started in the Governor’s race. Richard Moore and Bev Perdue are going at each other full-bore on TV. Over college tuition, of all things. Who guessed that would be the burning issue this year? Why? Because tuition sums up a host of middle-class economic anxieties. And it’s…

Electability Doesn’t Elect

By Gary Pearce March 27, 2008

A campaign that plays the electability card is by definition a campaign that is losing. Voters never elect a candidate because they think he or she is more electable in the fall than their opponent. There is a logical disconnect: The candidate who is losing usually argues electability. Voters don’t see how the loser can…

Debbie Sunshine?

By Gary Pearce March 25, 2008

Perhaps someone can shine the light of open-government on this question. Debbie Crane, former PIO at Health and Human Services, is being praised as a paragon of open government. She spoke at the Sunshine Week program at Elon University. Yet Crane says she told ex-Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom NOT to talk to The News &…

So?

By Gary Pearce March 25, 2008

That is what Vice President Cheney said when asked about the American people’s opposition to the Iraq War. Funny, that’s exactly what I think about anything Cheney says or believes. So? The Democrats’ strategy has to be to ask the American people if they want four more years of Bush-Cheney-McCain. Click Here to discuss and…

Obama Wins. It’s Over.

By Gary Pearce March 24, 2008

Make it official: Barack Obama has won the Democratic presidential nomination. He won it with his speech on race last week. He swept away any chance the superdelegates will overrule the results of the primaries and caucuses. By disarming his critics over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright – even Clinton had to praise his speech –…

Edwards Redux?

By Gary Pearce March 24, 2008

Is John Edwards contemplating another race? The state party announced that Edwards and James Carville will be keynote speakers at the Young Democrats annual meeting March 29. Immediately touching off speculation that Edwards may be thinking of another run for President (assuming Democrats lose this year) – or challenging Senator Richard Burr in 2010. That,…

Two Democratic Parties

By Gary Pearce March 21, 2008

Just like John Edwards’s “two Americas,” today we have two Democratic parties: the Obama party and the Clinton party. If you want to know where this kind of split leads, read about Kennedy v Carter in 1980, Ford v Reagan in 1976 and McCarthy v Humphrey in 1968. This is a formula for defeat in…

Two Democratic Parties

By Gary Pearce March 21, 2008

Just like John Edwards’s “two Americas,” today we have two Democratic parties: the Obama party and the Clinton party. If you want to know where this kind of split leads, read about Kennedy v Carter in 1980, Ford v Reagan in 1976 and McCarthy v Humphrey in 1968. This is a formula for defeat in…

Swinging Polls

By Gary Pearce March 20, 2008

Richard Moore’s campaign has taken heart from the new Public Policy Polling survey that shows him trailing Bev Perdue only 44-34. Skepticism is in order given the wild swing from PPP’s last poll, which had Moore behind by 27 points. PPP attributed the change to Moore’s new ad. But one ad, not long on the…

Obama 48-Trump 39

By Gary Pearce April 26, 2026

A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…

“Conservative Successes”?

By Gary Pearce April 23, 2026

Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…

Rise and Fall

By Gary Pearce April 21, 2026

A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…