Why did Dean fail?

I have decided not to express too many opinions on the US elections- believe it or not I was approached by an over eager online campaigner to endorse George W Bush. Clearly I have been identified as a Republican! I declined to comment either way due to an old fashioned belief that I shouldnt in any way interfere in another democratic nation’s politics.

This doesnt stop me linking to an American’s commentary by Jeff Jarvis who tries to explain the fall of Dean: “The reason Howard Dean (with Al Gore) lost is that they ran a negative campaign. But the problem wasn’t that they were negative about other candidates. It was that they were negative about America.”