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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At Mar-a-Lago

By Carter Wrenn April 27, 2021

Trump gave an order: Don’t certify the election results. Mitch McConnell disobeyed. Angry, offended, sitting in a room full of Republican donors at Mar-a-Lago, Trump struck back, called McConnell a ‘dumb son-of-a-bitch.’ The problem isn’t that Trump dislikes McConnell – it’s how Trump went about it: Hurling insults. And, worse, it’s people cheering as he…

Rolling Downhill

By Carter Wrenn April 26, 2021

Profound faith: Laying wounded on a gurney staring up at the emergency room ceiling, an assassin’s bullet lodged an inch from his heart, hemorrhaging internally, Ronald Reagan said a prayer for the crazed young man who’d just shot him; later, fighting to win the Cold War, Reagan warned, If we forget we are one nation…

Gospel Truth? Or Heresy?

By Carter Wrenn March 26, 2021

To get reelected Trump had to win one war: He had to beat Joe Biden with Independents. He failed. But, as we hear Trumpsters say every day, most Republicans are still blindly loyal to Trump. Gospel truth? Or heresy? Forty-four years ago when I managed Ronald Reagan’s first Presidential campaign in North Carolina we fought…

Lyin’ Eyes

By Carter Wrenn March 24, 2021

When I was ten years old walking along a muddy dirt road beside a wide creek at the foot of a hill I glanced down, saw a black tree branch lying in a patch of sunlight in the mud – behind me my gray-haired uncle said, Stop. A snake reared up in the air in…

Shaky Ground

By Carter Wrenn March 4, 2021

President Trump’s spokesman, Jason Miller, declared to Fox News, “Trump effectively is the Republican party.” Years ago conservatives, like Ronald Reagan, rebuilt the Republican party based on conservative principles that reflected the gospels they believed in. That led to battles between Republicans and Democrats on issues. Many of those conservative issues were weapons in Trump’s…

A Mirror: Two Thousand Years Ago

By Carter Wrenn February 24, 2021

Locked in his prison cell in Rome Saint Paul wrote Timothy: In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, slanderers, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure… Lying in bed the other night reading that I thought, The end times may be closer than I thought. But it turned out…

The Blessed Silence

By Carter Wrenn January 15, 2021

I remember a thin, tall, blonde boy, back in high school, who’d set his tray on the table in the cafeteria, start talking – and he couldn’t stop; mocking a girl’s dress, a football player’s stammer, a math teacher’s hairdo he’d talk on and on. Trump likes to talk too. Morning, noon and night he’s…

Election Nights

By Carter Wrenn January 13, 2021

In the old days, when we all voted on election day, election nights had a kind of normalcy – votes trickled in, then rolled in, but huge puzzling swings were rare. Then early voting started and unexpected swings began to happen on election nights. For some reason Democrats like voting early while Republicans prefer walking…

Looking Back at Georgia

By Carter Wrenn January 11, 2021

Our nightmare came true. Democrats won the Senate. According to the exit polls more Republicans voted in Georgia than Democrats (Republicans: 38%, Democrats 34%) – which meant if the two Republican candidates each got 50% of the Independent vote, they’d each win by four points. They lost Independents 57-43%. Why? Most people walking around on…

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…