The Los Angeles Times has perhaps the best article up about the Hillary Clinton files of all the newspapers that have spent attention to it. The basic idea of the LAT is: “Federal archivists Wednesday released 11,000 pages of schedules from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s eight years as first lady, but the material offered little to support her assertion that her White House experience left her best prepared to become president.”

The records show that Clinton was a very “active first lady who traveled widely and was deeply involved in health care policy, but they are rife with omissions, terse references and redactions that obscure many of her activities and the identities of those she saw.”

For months, Sen. Clinton has faced calls to speed the release of about 2 million pages of material from her time as first lady. The records are stored at her husband’s presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. But it seems doubtful that the schedules made public Wednesday will satisfy those who complain that Clinton touts her experience in her husband’s White House, yet refuses to offer details about her precise role.

The records span some of the most historically rich and well-documented chapters in the Clinton presidency, including Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky; Hillary Clinton’s failed healthcare initiative; and her role in the dismissal of several White House travel office employees. But in many cases, the documents refer only to “private meetings” and do little to illuminate the dramatic events unfolding at the time.

The result: Clinton-critics say the records aren’t enough. They’re demanding more information:

California First Amendment Coalition Executive Director Peter Scheer, a leading advocate of public access to government records, said that more disclosure was essential.

“It seems to me that after so much time has passed, that there is no longer a real justification for keeping the names of people you are meeting with a secret,” Scheer said.

And:

Over time, Clinton’s schedules offer less and less information. In 1993, her first year as first lady, the records include the names of people she met with. But federal archivists blotted out those names, citing privacy issues. In spring 1994, Clinton’s schedulers appear to have stopped including names — so her days are filled with one “private meeting” after another, with no mention of whom she met with or why.

On Jan. 28, 1994, the names of the participants in a 10 a.m. meeting with her at Bally’s in Las Vegas have been erased.

So, the records basically show that she was active - which is something we all knew already - but also indicate that she’s not all too willing to share information with the public; if she considers it unnecessary at least. In order words, some will undoubtedly call her secretive, and they would have quite some ammo to work with.

But there’s more:

Clinton has pointed to a March 1996 trip to Bosnia and other parts of Europe as an example of what she said were the dangerous assignments she took. The records show that on that trip, she did speak to the Bosnian president, as well as to German and Turkish leaders.

But she also socialized with leaders’ wives, listened to children read poetry, visited religious and archaeological sites, met with women’s groups and looked on as singer Sheryl Crow and comedian Sinbad entertained U.S. troops.

In closing I think it’s fair to conclude the following:

1. She probably exaggerates the role she played in her husband’s administration, at least to a degree and in some respects

2. Her main critics, on the other hand, are underestimating that role

3. The truth lies somewhere in the middle: yes, she was involved in some key decisions, but no, she wasn’t a second president

4. Hillary is still reasonably secretive

5. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot to work with, considering the fact that he never once, say, met with Turkish and Bosnian leaders at such a critical time in history

6. This issue isn’t going to hurt Clinton as much as her opponents thought and hoped. They’ll have to find something else to work with

7. If experience matters, she’s more experienced than Obama, but (far) less experienced than John McCain

8. It’s a pity that this didn’t result in a controversy because we need a controversy every 24 hours