Thanks to energy producers, from rig hands to billionaire Harold Hamm, our country is energy independent and actually is a net exporter of both oil and liquified natural gas. Americans need to know that and when speakers at the Republican National Convention claim otherwise, as we heard many do so, it erodes my confidence in their ability to lead if they must lie in doing so.

Examples of such behavior last night were Donald Trump Jr. and new VP candidate J.D. Vance. I expected such behavior from Kid Trump but from Yale graduate and United States Sen. Vance … no, never.

While serving in our Legislature over a 28-year period, I quickly learned there are only two things at the state Capitol of real value: [1] Knowledge; how much do you know on a particular issue or subject; and [2] Your word. That should be obvious but apparently it isn’t to this pair, leading me to doubt and have to double-check whatever else they may peddle or say in the future.

J.D. – whose initials must stand for “Just Doublecheck” – will be, as they say, within a heartbeat of the presidency. I recognize whatever I think of him is on no one’s radar screen but others of greater significance have and are taking a measure of this new and very young vice-presidential nominee; as a matter of fact, the youngest in the history of our nation.

So, here’s a report card for him from me:

1. Proper use of the English language: A-. Would have been a solid A but fibbing as VP a big deal. Almost dropped him to a B.
2. Can he add and subtract? C. Mostly he can except when he’s trying to score political points which was pretty often last night. His grade here is headed downward due to not admitting to the massive national debt run up by Trump himself. Vance is smart enough to reverse course on math but his enthusiasm for the job and Trump makes him vulnerable to hype and partisanship. Smart enough to do better but is he strong enough?
3. Can he play well with others? B+. He’s a charmer with his own family but how genuine is his regard for folks he left behind in those coal mining counties and dying main streets so brilliantly illuminated in his best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy. After all he has now an important title in front of his name and a bank account with at least 10 digits in it.
4. Social Studies. F+. Vance has drunk the Kool Aid about woke world; America’s denial of centuries of racism; the overall evilness of Democrats, in general, and Joe Biden, specifically, so this poor grade will be the hardest to improve but in many ways the most important. He can get help with conversational skills and writing a balanced budget but if he really believes all that pablum about public policy that differs from his worldview he’ll remain a conservative iconoclast wedded to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Great for Wall Street and billionaires like Peter Thiel who funded his political ascension in Ohio. A killer for Main Street and the commoners who populate it.
5. National defense. C-. He’ll never get above this Gentleman C until he comes to understand Vladimir Putin’s lifelong goal has been, is and will be dominance of the European continent. Ukraine is just goal one in Putin’s geopolitical scheme of returning run-down, poor, broken and bankrupt Russia to America’s top competitor for world dominance. It is not today – China is – and Putin has already burned through the lives of 350,000 young soldiers and has only a slim sliver of eastern Ukraine to show for it, but that does not mean madman and war criminal Communist Putin won’t keep trying. It’s hard for dictators to quit being dictators and several presidents never grasped that simple reality. Remember George W. Bush said he had looked deep into Putin’s eyes and found a man he could trust. Senior Bush opined he could work with Vlad and both were wrong. Vance needs to grow up fast if he is to be taken seriously on the dangerous, volatile world stage where his boss, former President Trump, has already succumbed to his Russian counterpart’s charm and blackmail offensive when he declared his trust for him over our own intelligence professionals.

In summary it’s a dangerous world out there and a divided country here. Sorry about that J.D., but, remember, just like joining the Marines, you volunteered for this new job so I hope you are a quick study. Your new boss hasn’t proven to be.