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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The School Board’s Second Black Eye

By Carter Wrenn July 19, 2007

The Wake County School Board got a second “black eye” from County Commissioners. Commissioner Kenn Gardner blasted the Board for reducing teacher pay raises at the same time it was boosting Administrative spending 11% – twice the increase in school enrollment. Not so, Chief Business Officer of the School Board David Neter, shot back. He…

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Trash Dumps: Democrats Say Yes?

By Carter Wrenn July 19, 2007

Democrats in the State Legislature have handed Republicans a gift. Last year, four waste management companies proposed to build huge trash dumps in North Carolina, primarily so they can haul trash and debris here from up north and dump it. It’s hard to see any merit in this proposal unless you happen to live in…

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New Life for John McCain?

By Carter Wrenn July 18, 2007

John McCain may have figured out a way to breathe new life into his flagging Presidential campaign. What’s puzzling is why no other Republican candidates have tried it. McCain’s strategy is simple. Attack Hillary. “Defeatism will not buy peace in our time,” McCain told Republicans at a rally in New Hampshire (AP, 7-14-07). “It will…

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Swat Team Recovers PlayStation

By Carter Wrenn July 18, 2007

Two college students in Wilmington beat up a third student and stole a PlayStation. Campus police called the sheriff’s department. The sheriff’s department sent a swat team to get it back. Why a swat team? Because the students had posted a photograph on the Internet showing them holding semi-automatic rifles and pistols. So the sheriff’s…

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Doing the Impossible

By Carter Wrenn July 18, 2007

Erskine Bowles should receive the “Magician of the Year” award. He’s just about done the impossible. Usually, anyone (much less the President of the UNC System) who proposes cutting the universities’ budgets, (News & Observer, 7-9-07), faces a public lynching from outraged faculty – who view every penny spent (except on basketball) on their campuses…

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What Happened to the Democrats?

By Carter Wrenn July 17, 2007

When Iraq’s Prime Minister al-Maliki said U.S. forces could leave “any time they want,” I thought the Democrats in Congress would take him up on his offer the next day. That every Democrat from Harry Reid to Hillary would say, Well, it doesn’t look like we have to stay in Iraq until next spring after…

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A Billion in Land: No Appraisals?

By Carter Wrenn July 17, 2007

The Wake County School Board got three “black eyes” in one day (last Tuesday) in The News and Observer. The first was the continuing a saga of the Boards ‘Land Acquisitions Office.’ If you buy a home the bank requires an appraisal. But the ‘Land Acquisition Office’ says that’s folly. It’s administrators want to buy…

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A Hundred Years in Afghanistan

By Carter Wrenn July 17, 2007

In Argentina they’re celebrating the first snowfall in Buenos Aires since 1918. At Cape Canaveral they’re getting ready to launch a new spacecraft to Mars. And in Afghanistan a man just traded his sixteen-year-old daughter to settle a debt he owed for nine sheep. Which turns out not to be unusual. In Afghanistan fathers trade…

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Men, Women, and Talking

By Carter Wrenn July 17, 2007

Sometimes scientists say some pretty incredible things. Like the geologist who said – without a doubt – that he’d discovered indisputable proof while digging in the mud in the Amazon that South America was once part of Africa, ten million years ago. Or like the statistician who said he’d proved with a certainty of three…

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Wake Up, America

By Carter Wrenn March 17, 2025

A dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, locked down during COVID, he called, surprised me asking: ‘Ford beat Reagan in…

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Hope

By Gary Pearce March 17, 2025

I have hope – despite what Trump is doing. I have hope because of what he’s…

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Education Governor

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2025

With a better General Assembly, Josh Stein could join Jim Hunt and Terry Sanford on North…

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