Mitt Romney has been compared to...

...both Al Gore, for being a wooden campaigner who has trouble connecting with voters, and John Kerry, as an elite, French-speaking flip-flopper from Massachusetts.

But I can't help thinking of George H. W. Bush.

Mitt Romney and the first President Bush were both sons of privilege who excelled at everything from Day One. While Romney grew up in leafy Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the elder Bush was raised in even leafier Greenwich, Connecticut. Romney's father served as governor and ran for president after retiring as CEO of American Motors (think Jeep, you youngsters out there). Bush's father was a United States senator who had made a small fortune at Brown Brothers on Wall Street.

Not content to lay on a beach and live off his father's wealth, Romney attended Harvard Business and Law Schools simultaneously, before embarking on his wildly successful career at Bain. Romney also famously rescued the Olympics and served as governor of Massachusetts where he passed a truly historic health care reform bill. Bush, after serving in World War II as one of the nation's youngest fighter pilots, went to Yale where he was captain of the baseball team (and maybe All-America) and a member of Skull and Bones and Phi Beta Kappa. Instead of following his father to Wall Street, Bush struck out for the oil fields of west Texas where he made his fortune. He then served in Congress, as ambassador to the United Nations and China, CIA director, chairman of the Republican Party, and whatever else I'm forgetting.

In their personal lives, Romney and Bush both appear to be squeaky clean. Romney married his childhood sweetheart, has five handsome sons and is a pillar of the Mormon Church. Bush also has been married to the same woman forever with whom he raised a bunch of kids. Neither Romney nor I drink beer, but if I did, I wouldn't mind having one with him (or George H. W. for that matter).

Both men strike me as stellar individuals and worthy of our admiration.

But (and you knew there had to be a "but") ... why do Bush and Romney -- such otherwise honorable men -- run such dishonorable campaigns for president? Bush, again for you youngsters, pledged -- over and over again -- not to raise taxes in order to balance the budget (which he reneged on immediately upon taking office). Once he gained the trust of his party's right wing, Bush ran a horrible general election campaign against Michael Dukakis in which he questioned the Massachusetts governor's patriotism and made the famous Willie Horton commercial which appealed to the worst instincts of white voters. (It was only fitting that Bush lost his reelection bid in 1992.) Romney, if you listen to his stump speeches, is also saying some pretty outrageous things about President Obama. In questioning his patriotism and commitment to capitalism, for example, Romney is not just stretching the truth, he's downright lying.

And so this is what I don't get about Romney and the elder Bush: they're both men who have lived exemplary lives but have chosen -- for some reason -- to campaign from the gutter. And that's a shame.