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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Fear and Loathing 2024

By Gary Pearce January 17, 2024

I’m optimistic about the 2024 elections, as I’ve written. But I’m fearful for our nation. Because of Trump and MAGA. It’s clear he will summon his mobs to violence, as he did January 6, 2021. He has promised “bedlam” if courts hold him to account for crimes. Already, there have been “swatting” calls, bomb threats…

A Sacred Cause

By Gary Pearce January 9, 2024

In one stroke, with one speech, President Biden transformed the 2024 election. It’s about “a sacred cause:” the defense of democracy. In his speech near Valley Forge last week – a day before the third anniversary of the Trump-MAGA mob’s violent assault on the Capitol and the Constitution – the President invoked the spirit of…

Happy New Year, Democrats

By Gary Pearce January 5, 2024

I’m optimistic about Democrats in 2024. The country is better off today than it was four years ago. The economy is growing, jobs are increasing, prices have steadied and the stock market is booming. We have a President focused on leading, governing and uniting – not a would-be dictator obsessed with 24-hour tweeting, insulting and…

Bombs Falling

By Carter Wrenn December 28, 2023

Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal told Meet the Press that the Biden Administration has a duty to stop Israel killing civilians. “The United States cannot be backers of this kind of indiscriminate bombing.” To defeat Hitler and Tojo we bombed cities, civilians. If Pramila Jayapal had stood up in Congress in 1944 and told us, Stop…

Biden’s Pause

By Carter Wrenn December 27, 2023

Twenty-nine hundred Americans died on 9/11. Twelve hundred Israelis died on October 7. A week ago White House spokesman John Kirby voice purring told Meet the Press about Biden’s “intense effort” to get Israel to “pause” its war with Hamas. “We are still working it really hard, hour by hour, to see if we can…

Times Have Changed

By Carter Wrenn December 26, 2023

Britain sinking American ships landed us in the War of 1812. Germany sinking American ships landed us in World War I. Japan sinking American ships landed us in World War II. Today, Iran’s got Houthis and Hamas firing drones and missiles at American ships in the Red Sea – but Biden’s telling Israel to ‘pause,’…

Politics Takes Control

By Carter Wrenn December 22, 2023

After Roe vs. Wade for decades Republicans said, ‘Taking an innocent life is wrong. A fetus is alive. We can’t do that.’ After the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Republicans lost elections in 2022 and 2023 – eyes locked on the next election Republican political gurus started telling candidates: Voters don’t like banning abortions…

Character

By Carter Wrenn December 21, 2023

Richard Nixon beat George McGovern by a landslide in 1972, got caught in a lie – on tape – was out of office. Lyndon Johnson promised he’d never send American boys 10,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to fight in Vietnam, beat Barry Goldwater in a landslide – after the election sent 500,000 boys to…

A Forgotten Memory

By Carter Wrenn December 20, 2023

The first speech I heard Ronald Reagan make was six weeks after Russian tanks rolled into Saigon in 1975 and we lost the Vietnam War. Voice mellow, soothing, humble, his speech wasn’t a history lesson it was a reminiscence, a man telling a story he’d watched, lived through, remembering storm troopers goose-stepping into Vienna, the…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…