Hillary Rodham Clinton's reticence is drowning out her message, which is that she is the cure for the many ailments that afflict America during a second Democratic presidential term. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called her "the most opaque person you'll ever meet in your life," but when opacity yields to the necessity of answering questions, here are a few:

Your first leadership adventure was when your husband entrusted you with health care reform. Using a process as complex as it was secretive, you produced a proposal so implausible that a Democratic-controlled Congress would not even vote on it. Your legislation was one reason that in 1994 Democrats lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. What did you learn from this futility and repudiation?

Three times in your memoir "Hard Choices" you say that as secretary of state you visited 112 countries. Do you think "peripatetic" is a synonym for "effective"? You tell readers that at a 2009 meeting with Chinese officials you said, "We need to build a resilient relationship that allows both of us to thrive and meet our global responsibilities without unhealthy competition, rivalry or conflict." Does it trouble your environmental conscience that trees died to produce the paper on which you recycled that thought?