When Al Gore in 2000 conceded the presidency to George W Bush many supporters were deeply disappointed he had thrown in the towel. They believed – many still believe – that Gore, who won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college courtesy of some "hanging chads" in Florida, was robbed by a partisan supreme court ruling.
Tempting as it was, Gore declined to fight on in the courts, worried he would undermine public confidence in American democracy. “For the sake of our unity as a people,” he said, “and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honour the new president-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together.”
Donald Trump has no understanding of such "responsibility". In the final TV debate of the campaign in Las Vegas on Wednesday he unprecedentedly – "horrifyingly" is how Hillary Clinton rightly put it – grabbed the headlines by refusing to commit to honour the result. "I will look at it at the time," he blustered, alleging, without evidence, that there are millions of falsely-registered voters. And that the press had poisoned voters against him – the same press which for most of the campaign gave him lavish, largely uncritical, free copy others would give their eye teeth for.
The debate was hardly a surprise. As the New York Times put it, "an exercise in narcissism, bombast and mendacity by Trump". He is going out as he has campaigned all along, untamed by handlers, untutored in the issues, and driven by the idea that if you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one.
He trades in hyperbole and gross mischaracterisations of his opponent, even suggesting she should have been legally debarred from running: "Nobody has more respect for women than I do"; "She's guilty of a very very serious crime . . . such a nasty woman"; "She has been outsmarted and outplayed worse than anybody I've ever seen in any government, whatsoever"; "If you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother"; the Nafta trade deal done by Bill Clinton, the worst in human history, only surpassed by the deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme . . . His unconvincing response to claims of sexual groping: lies, all lies, and "debunked".
And the six-times bankrupt billionaire boasts that the country would be well served if it was run in the fashion of his hugely successful company. The mind boggles.
Clinton won the debate comfortably, ironically by turning Trump’s personal attack style against him, repeatedly getting under his skin as she recited his own words and deeds back at him.
When he taunted her that Vladimir Putin did not support her candidacy, she quipped that was because he would prefer a puppet as president. Touché. Not a final coup de grace, but the next best thing.