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.

CarterWrenn200x271

Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

Archives

Categories

Just the Facts, Ma’am

By Gary Pearce 2023-06-10

Jack Smith looked a bit like Abe Lincoln and talked a lot like Sgt. Joe Friday. We saw and heard him Friday afternoon for the first time. In just under three minutes and just over 300 words – strong, striking, sledgehammer sentences – the special counsel laid out his case. “Good afternoon. Today, an indictment…

Read More

Is Bipartisanship Dead?

By Gary Pearce 2023-06-08

At breakfast, a friend who has worked with the legislature for many years wondered if there is any hope for bipartisanship. “There are so many leadership-development groups in North Carolina,” he said. “Could they all come together and develop a new cohort of leaders and legislators who can work across party lines?” Given how toxic,…

Read More

Two Bare-Knuckled Street Kids

By Carter Wrenn 2023-06-07

Chris Christie’s doing something no other candidate’s dared do: Tackle the Donald head-on. It’s unorthodox. But routine political thinking isn’t working too well against Trump. So, who knows, unorthodox might work. Imagine Christie and Trump in a debate both throwing punches – it’d be worth watching just to see which one blinks. It may turn…

Read More

Folwell’s Foolishness

By Gary Pearce 2023-06-07

When State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced in March that he’s running for Governor, he said, “Voters like candidates who attack problems, not people.” That didn’t last long. He must have figured out that, in Trump’s Republican Party, the whole point of politics is to attack people. And – shades of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and…

Read More

A Year of Bread and Circuses

By Carter Wrenn 2023-06-06

The Donald just announced he’s got a grand idea – if elected he’s going to throw a whooping party like no one’s ever seen before to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. How long will Trump’s party last? A day? A weekend? No, a year. Will his party be in front of the Lincoln Memorial? The Statue…

Read More

Biden Magic

By Gary Pearce 2023-06-06

Remember a few weeks ago when America was careening toward a debt-ceiling cliff, a fiscal crisis that would plunge us into economic catastrophe, stock-market collapse and 401k apocalypse? Then, suddenly – poof! presto! abracadabra! – it was gone. We avoided the cliff. We dodged disaster. Our pensions and portfolios are safe. The economy rolls on,…

Read More

Déjà vu All Over Again

By Carter Wrenn 2023-06-05

DeSantis announced he’d fire Christopher Wray – who Trump made head of the FBI; Trump War Room shot back tweeting, ‘DeSantis voted to confirm Wray in 2017.’ DeSantis War Room pounced: ‘Wray was confirmed by the Senate’ – in other words DeSantis was in the House so he never voted on Wray’s confirmation. Trump popped…

Read More

Fall In

By Gary Pearce 2023-06-05

Like President Biden, I fell this weekend. And I’m only 74. He tripped on an ill-placed sandbag. I slipped on a slick boardwalk in Manteo. He fell more gracefully than I did. My feet went out from under me, and I ended up flat on my back. No damage done, except for some soreness and…

Read More

Forgotten Stories from our Past: Churchill Didn’t say a Word

By Carter Wrenn 2023-06-01

Descending a flight of stairs wearing a pair of Italian high heels, Winston Churchill’s sixty-seven-year-old mother fell, broke her ankle, gangrene set in, her leg was amputated above the knee, a vein in her thigh hemorrhaged, she died. Two months later Churchill’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Marigold, throat infected, inflamed with tonsilitis, sighed, ‘So tired, so tired’…

Read More

A Simple Question

By Carter Wrenn 2024-03-27

Hamas stormed into Israel, killed men, women, and children. Shocked Israelis thought, We’re no longer safe.…

Read More

Plagues

By Carter Wrenn 2024-03-26

Plagues have been around since the time of the Pharaohs: What caused the plague that killed…

Read More

Both Sides Now?

By Gary Pearce 2024-03-26

Democratic heads exploded over this story in The News & Observer last week: “The two candidates…

Read More