The GOP candidates did their best last night to keep George Bush out of last night's debate.
Searching the CNN transcript (and part 2), I see that the candidates uttered the name "Bush" exactly twice, and neither mention was positive.
First, Thompson uses the name as a negative adjective during an attack on Romney:
First of all, of course, Governor Romney supported the Bush immigration plan until a short time ago. Now he's taken another position, surprisingly.
Later, Giuliani tells Bush how to reduce spending:
I think you have to across-the-board spending cuts the way Ronald Reagan did, a 5, 10 percent per civilian agency should be done right now, actually. President Bush should do it to strengthen the dollar.
McCain does get in a positive reference, though not by name:
So we tried and we failed. And I appreciate the president's efforts. He comes from a border state too. And what we've learned is that the American people want the borders enforced. We must enforce the -- secure the borders first.
And Hunter has a neutral reference, also not by name:
... the crime rate in the city of San Diego went down by 53 percent by FBI statistic. And as a result of that, I wrote the law that the president signed last October 26
And that's it.
It's as if they're ashamed of him, or something. Hey -- something we can agree on!