Icon bashing at debates or the lack thereof

I'm sure you will hear lots of commentary about what was said at last night's Republican debate, but I want to think of something that was not said.  The last Democratic debate I heard there were accusations by Clinton that Obama had somehow said a nice word about the former Republican president Reagan and this was followed by denials and mutual bashing of the legacy of the president as though he was the worst president in the history of the United States and it was only a miracle our nation survived his policies.

You know, if a Republican were to ever to criticize a Democratic presidential icon (like Kennedy) he or she would be drawn and quartered by the media.  If a Democrat were to demonize a Republican presidential icon (like Reagan) then they are lovingly coddled by the media.

But during the whole debate there was no mention of any Democratic former president in a bad light.  There was no Clinton bashing, no Carter bashing.  In fact the only real bashing came indirectly from Ron Paul who mentioned that traditionally Republicans were elected to get us out of wars, like Korea and Vietnam, not to keep us in them, implying that it was a democratic administration that got us in those messes.

I wonder how much Republican presidential bashing there is going to be in tonight's debate by the Dynamic Duo.  Bush bashing doesn't count, but I'll bet they will throw a jab at Bush Sr. or Reagan or even Ford.