This Bradley Lecture is based on Brooks’s new book, “The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise” (Basic Books, May 2012).

Unlocking "unconventional" energy requires unconventional politics, and that's one resource that is genuinely scarce among today's backwards-looking bureaucrats and green interest groups.

One approach for Mitt Romney would be what opponents might call a double-vanilla ticket, with another white male as vice presidential nominee. Four possibilities come to mind.

One year after the Fukushima disaster, nuclear energy policy is moving in two opposite directions. While much of the world, led by Germany, is embracing caution and winding down nuclear energy ambitions, the US, Britain, France and Russia are poised to boost their nuclear estate.

Mitt Romney's impressive victory Tuesday makes it very likely that we will look back on the Florida primary as the contest that determined the 2012 Republican nomination. To be sure, the campaign fight will go on, and Romney is by no means assured of a sweep of the relatively few February contests.

If Romney were more adept and philosophically grounded, he could make the case that he’s the guy to turn around government. You can hear him trying, but he’s not there yet.