I lived through the George H.W. Bush presidency, and there were only two moments when I felt anything but intense dislike for the man: first, when he joined with Democrats in Congress to support a tax increase on the wealthy in 1990, and second, when he conceded the Presidential election to Bill Clinton in November 1992. He did so with grace and dignity, congratulating Clinton on his victory and pledging to bring the country together to support the new President-elect. After an extremely bitter and negative campaign (by Bush) it was a healing moment and I felt very grateful to the man.
It goes back really to when you are a kid learning to be involved in competition, whether a sporting event, or a chess game, or whatever. We teach kids that there is something more important than winning or losing -- that you try your hardest to win, but that you always treat your opponent with dignity and above all BE A GOOD SPORT. "Win with grace, lose with dignity."
I am a pretty big sports fan and I have to say that despite all the criticisms of selfish athletes and bad behavior in the world of sports, for the most part losers are gracious. They may complain about the refs a little bit at times, but the vast majority of the time, the message is "I'm disappointed we lost, but my hat goes off to the other team."
Hillary Rodham Clinton has demonstrated herself, over the past three months, to be the most undignified, graceless loser perhaps in American history. It has been quite evident since Wisconsin that Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee. Instead of going out with grace and dignity, Hillary has simply raged against the unchangeable fact of her defeat. She has raged against it with denial, rationalization, lies, and with simple rage itself.
I am not saying she should have withdrawn from the race in February (though she should have). What she should have done was continue (if she so desired) with dignity and respect for herself and her opponent.
The biggest reason why people try not to be sore losers is because the way you handle victory and defeat says so much more about a person's character than whether they win or lose.
Grantland Rice probably said it best:
"For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the Game."
As long as people remember Hillary Rodham Clinton, they will remember how she has played this game, and they will not remember it kindly.