Bill Clinton’s promise to lift the ban on gays in the military provoked one of the most wrenching fights of his first year in office. It roiled his relationships with Congress and the military, consumed huge amounts of political capital, and ultimately ended in an uneasy compromise: “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

So it was noteworthy and politically telling, 14 years later, when the eight Democratic candidates at a contentious debate in New Hampshire seemed in utter agreement on one thing: It was time to return to that original promise to allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military. It was time to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” which allows them to serve if they keep quiet about their sexual orientation and do not engage in homosexual acts.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was among the most forceful, describing her husband’s compromise as “a transition policy” and “an important first step” that was no longer “the best way for us as a nation to proceed.” She quoted Barry Goldwater that, “you don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.”

Senator Joseph Biden chimed in, saying that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was “flat wrong” when he recently warned that repealing this policy would be bad for the military. “Nobody asked anybody else whether they’re gay” on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, he said. When the moderator, Wolf Blitzer of CNN, asked for a show of hands on repeal, every hand went up in support.