The candidates took similar positions on immigration, saying it was important to have tougher border enforcement while providing steps to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people in the country illegally -- without giving them what critics call "amnesty."
The candidates also agreed it was time to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.
"I've been to Afghanistan," Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware said. "I've been to Iraq seven times, I've been in the Balkans, I've been in these foxholes with these kids, literally in bunkers with them. Let me tell you something, nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in ... those foxholes."
Asked how they might deploy former President Clinton in their administrations, several candidates said they would dispatch him as a roving ambassador, charged with mending U.S. relations around the world. Hillary Clinton said her "dear husband" would "make it very clear to the rest of the world that we're back to a policy of reaching out and working and trying to make friends and allies."
Each was asked to name the No. 1 priority of their first 100 days in office. Clinton and Obama said they would end the Iraq war, if Bush had not done so already. Richardson said he would focus on education, Biden on ending the war and dealing with hostile regimes in Iran and North Korea. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut said he would "try to restore the constitutional rights in our country.... I would do that on the first day."
Former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska ignored the question and said congressional Democrats had it in their power to immediately end the war.
The debate was at St. Anselm College. Cosponsors CNN, the New Hampshire Union Leader and WMUR-TV will hold a debate of 10 Republican presidential candidates there Tuesday.
michael.finnegan@latimes.com
mark.barabak@latimes.com
