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 Stein Way

By Gary Pearce April 14, 2025

Governor Josh Stein’s way could be Democrats’ way back to the White House in 2028. In his first 100 days, the Governor has led with calm, confidence and competence. It’s a welcome contrast to Trump’s chaos, conflict and confusion. Trump wages all-out war all the time with an endless list of enemies. Stein believes in…

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Tillis’ Fate

By Gary Pearce April 10, 2025

Senator Thom Tillis wants to have it both ways. He wants MAGA Republicans to think he’s a loyal Trump foot soldier. He wants swing voters to think he’s an effective, independent voice. But, no matter what he does, he can’t escape Trump. His political fate in 2026 is lashed to Trump’s like Ahab to the…

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Who’s After Publicity…

By Carter Wrenn April 10, 2025

Trump railed about radical left judges taking away his power, usurping his presidency, fumed one judge – James Boasberg – tried to stop him deporting ‘murderers, drug lords, and rapists.’ Next demanded the Supreme Court step in and stop that foolishness – and called Boasberg ‘a grandstander looking for publicity.’ That last part didn’t ring…

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Bad News for Us

By Carter Wrenn April 9, 2025

Lips pursed, standing at the front of her elementary school classroom, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, conducting a drill my teacher told students to crouch beneath our desks – I crouched wondering how on earth a wooden desk was going to save me from a nuclear missile. Times changed. After the Cold War ended we…

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Choking

By Gary Pearce April 9, 2025

At a hearing on the tariffs yesterday, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina demanded to know: “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Tillis knows the answer. It’s Trump. Here’s the question for Tillis: Will you stand up and stop him? Or will you choke?

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Madness

By Gary Pearce April 8, 2025

We’re all trapped on Trump’s Crazy Train, at the mercy of an engineer who’s mad, mean and stupid. Trump has no philosophy or ideology. His only governing principle is to hurt people he hates. And that’s a lot of people. His tariffs are all about punishing countries he hates. He exempts those that flatter him,…

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Less Melodrama…

By Carter Wrenn April 8, 2025

Sitting down, leaning back, I turned on the news – Fox News played a video Trump posted saying we saved Greenland from the Nazi’s in World War II. Going down its own road CNN did a story saying tariffs mean prices go up on top of inflation. Out to help Trump, Breitbart News said egg…

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A Higher Price

By Carter Wrenn April 7, 2025

Straight-faced, standing in the White House Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called tariffs a tax cut – Trumpsters cheered. Now a tariff can be a lot of things: A fee paid by a Canadian exporter, or by an American importer, or by a consumer standing in a shop – but one thing’s for sure: It’s not…

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Bright Futures

By Gary Pearce April 6, 2025

Even though I had to put on a suit and tie, the evening was balm for my soul in these troubled times. It was the annual Scholarship Dinner of N.C. State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which honors scholarship recipients and donors. I’ve endowed a scholarship in political science/communications at the college, which…

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Warner’s a Winner

By Gary Pearce November 11, 2005

My nominee for biggest winner of the week: Mark Warner of Virginia. No, he wasn’t running.…

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I’m Appalled.’

By Carter Wrenn November 4, 2005

“I’m appalled,” Lottery Commission Chairman Charlie Sanders said, describing his reaction to the revelation Scientific Games,…

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Take Fundraising Out of Lobbying

By Gary Pearce November 3, 2005

There is a simple – but drastic – step the legislature could take to prevent the…

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