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 Deal of a Lifetime

By Carter Wrenn May 8, 2007

Imagine this. Your employer loans you $12.5 million to build a country-western music theatre, pays you $1.5 million a year to manage it, then tells you when the debt is repaid you can buy the theatre for $1. And as a perk he gives you a house to live in. That would never happen you…

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Democratic Derby

By Gary Pearce May 8, 2007

If the Democratic presidential race was the Kentucky Derby, John Edwards would be the third-place horse hoping for Hillary and Obama to stumble – or leave him a gap to run through. Edwards’ best chance for a breakthrough is on the war. No other issue matters: health care, global warming, none of them. It’s all…

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Putin’s Soul

By Gary Pearce May 4, 2007

Two things jumped out from the pictures taken of George Bush senior, Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin at Boris Yeltsin’s funeral: Putin’s cold killer’s eyes. Which reminds us what George Bush junior said when he met Putin: he looked in his eyes and saw his soul. And decided it was good. Which explains why Bush…

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With Friends Like These…

By Gary Pearce May 4, 2007

Driving along U.S. 64 to the Outer Banks – through Martin, Washington and Tyrrell counties – you see an endless string of “No OLF” signs. Handmade, in various sizes, shapes and lettering, they make clear residents’ opposition to the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field. Now virtually every politician in Raleigh has jumped on the “No OLF”…

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Our Commander-in-Chief

By Gary Pearce May 4, 2007

President Bush calls himself “the decider.” Now he has a new wartime title, bestowed upon himself by himself. Bush met with congressional leaders Wednesday on the war-spending bill. Then he gave a speech criticizing Democrats for their get-out-of-Iraq deadline. He added: “The question is, ‘who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders?’…

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The End of the Bush Era

By Carter Wrenn May 4, 2007

Former CIA Director George Tenet (in his new book) says the debate within the Bush Administration before the invasion of Iraq ‘was not about imminence, it was about acting before Saddam did.’ In other words, President Bush invaded Iraq not because Saddam was on the verge of giving al-Qaeda weapons of mass destruction but because…

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A Simple Bill

By Carter Wrenn May 2, 2007

First, State Treasurer Richard Moore hired Quellos money management to help him invest state pension funds, then he paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, then he solicited their executives for contributions to his campaigns. Now the Charlotte Observer reports Quellos has some problems of its own. It has been sued for violating…

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Rahmbo Secrecy

By Gary Pearce May 2, 2007

I’m ashamed of my fellow Democrats. They shut the press out of last weekend’s Jefferson-Jackson Day speech by Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. What could Rahmbo have said that was so hush-hush? A secret plan to end the war in Iraq? A secret plan to take over the White House and increase Democratic congressional majorities…

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A Democratic Senator in ‘08?

By Gary Pearce April 30, 2007

Whenever a Democrat asks me about beating Liddy Dole next year, I ask this trivia question: Who was the last Democrat from North Carolina to win a U.S. Senate seat in a presidential election year? The answer: Sam Ervin. 1968. Almost 40 years ago. And Ervin won not as the Watergate folk hero – that…

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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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